VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 192
DATE 03-11-2014

Summary:
- The communion born of faith is not interrupted by death
- All Saints' Day: a multitude of unknown and suffering saints
- Commemoration of the departed faithful: pray for those the world has
forgotten
- The Pope celebrates Mass for the cardinals and bishops departed during the
last year
- The Holy See at the United Nations advocates a peaceful use of space
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 The communion born of faith is not interrupted by death
 Vatican City, 1 November 2014 (VIS) - "The first two days of November
represent for all of us an intense moment of faith, prayer and reflection on
the 'last things' in our lives. Indeed, celebrating all the Saints and
commemorating all the departed faithful, the earthly pilgrim Church lives and
expresses in the liturgy the spiritual bond that unites her with the heavenly
Church", explained the Holy Father to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's
Square to pray the Angelus.
 "Today's Solemnity thus helps us to consider a fundamental truth of the
Christian faith that we profess in the 'Creed': the communion of saints. It is
the communion that comes from faith and unites all those who belong to Christ
by Baptism. It is a spiritual union that is not broken by death, but continues
in the next life. In fact there is an unbreakable bond between us living in
this world and those who have crossed the threshold of death. We here on
earth, along with those who have entered into eternity, form one great family.
This beautiful communion between heaven and earth achieves its highest and
most intense manifestation in the Liturgy, and especially in the celebration
of the Eucharist, which expresses and fulfils the deepest union between the
members of the Church. In the Eucharist, we encounter the living Jesus and His
strength, and through Him we enter into communion with our brothers and
sisters in the faith, those who live with us here on earth and those who have
gone before us into the next life, life without end. This reality of communion
fills us with joy: it is good to have so many brothers and sisters in the
faith who walk alongside us, supporting us with their help and together we
travel the same road toward heaven. And it is comforting to know that we have
other brothers and sisters who have already reached heaven ahead of us and who
pray for us, so that together in eternity we can contemplate the glorious and
merciful face of the Father".
 Finally, the Pope emphasised that in the great assembly of the saints, "God
has reserved the first place for the Mother of Jesus. Mary is at the centre of
the communion of saints, as a unique custodian of the bond between the
universal Church and Christ, the bond of th family. ... For those who want to
follow Jesus on the path of the Gospel, she is a safe guide because she is the
first disciple, an attentive and caring Mother, to whom we can entrust every
desire and difficulty".
 After the Angelus prayer, Francis commented that this Sunday's liturgy refers
to the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, and invited the faithful to pray that
the "The Holy City, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, that in these days
bears witness to different tensions, may increasingly be the sign and
harbinger of the peace that God wishes for all the human family".
 He also recalled that today in Vitoria, Spain, the martyr Pedro Asúa Mendía
is beatified. "A humble and austere priest, he preached the Gospel with the
sanctity of his life, catechesis and devotion to the poor and needy. Arrested,
tortured and killed for having expressed his desire to remain faithful to the
Lord and to the Church, he is a wonderful example of strength in the faith and
witness of charity for us".

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 All Saints' Day: a multitude of unknown and suffering saints
 Vatican City, 2 November 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday, 1 November, Pope Francis
presided at the mass for the Solemnity of All Saints at the ceremony of
Verano, attended by numerous Roman faithful. During the celebration the relics
of Saints John XXIII and John Paul II, the two recently canonised popes, were
displayed for veneration, and at the end of the ceremony the Holy Father
blessed the tombs.
 Commenting on the reading from the Book of Revelation, Francis spoke in his
homily on the devastation of creation by humanity and the many suffering
peoples whose only hope is placed in God. "Do not harm the land or the sea or
the trees", cried the Angel to the four Angels who were to devastate the earth
and the sea and to destroy everything, and the Pope affirmed that "We are
capable of devastating the Earth more fully than the Angels. And this is what
we are doing. We devastate Creation ... we devastate life, we devastate
culture, we devastate values, we ravage hope. And how we are in need of the
Lord's strength, to seal us with his love and his strength, to stop this mad
race of destruction! The destruction of what He gave us, of the most beautiful
things that He made for us, for us to nurture, to make them grow and bear
fruit. Man has appropriated everything, believing himself to be God, believing
himself to be king. And wars: wars continue, and as a system it is not exactly
helping to sow the seeds of life, but is instead destroying it. It is an
industry of destruction. And it is also a system in which that which cannot be
fixed is discarded; children are discarded, the elderly are discarded, the
young unemployed are discarded ... entire populations are discarded".
 In the same passage St. John speaks about an immense and uncountable crowd,
including every nation, tribe, people and language, an uncountable multitude
that the Pope associated with the poor who, "to save their lives, have to flee
their homes ... and live in tents, suffering the cold, without medicine,
hungry, because the 'god-man' has appropriated Creation, all that is good that
God made for us. ... And this is not ancient history - it is happening today.
... It is as if these people, these hungry and sick children, did not count;
as if they were of another species, as if they were not human. And this
multitude stands before God and begs: 'Salvation, please! Peace, please!
Bread, please! Work, please! ... And among these persecuted people, there are
also those who are persecuted for their faith".
 The Pope compared this multitude to the crowd dressed in white who washing
their robes in the blood of the Lamb, as narrated in the Book of Revelation,
and affirmed: "Today, on All Saints' Day, I would like us to think of all of
them, all of these unknown saints, ... all these people who suffer great
tribulation. Most of the world experiences this tribulation. And the Lord
sanctifies these people, sinners like us, but sanctifies them with
tribulation".
 The third image the Pope evoked was that of God, or rather, hope. "And this
is the Lord's blessing, that we still have: hope. The hope that He will take
pity on His people, that he will take pity on those in their great
tribulation, that He will take pity on the destroyers, so that they convert.
... What must our attitude be, if we want to become part of this people who
walk the path towards the Father, in this world of devastation, in this world
of wars, in this world of tribulation? Our attitude, we have heard in the
Gospel, is that of the Beatitudes. Only that path can lead us to the encounter
with God. Only that path can save us from destruction, from the devastation of
the land, of Creation, of morals, of history, of the family, of everything.
Only that road: but it will not be easy. It will bring problems and
persecution. But it is the only route that will take us forward".
 "May the Lord help us and give us the grace of this hope, but also the grace
of the courage to leave behind all that is destruction, devastation,
relativism of life, exclusion of others, exclusion of values, exclusion of all
that the Lord has given us: the exclusion of peace. May He free us from this
and give us the grace to walk with the hope of finding ourselves face-to-face
with Him one day. And this hope, brothers and sisters, does not disappoint".

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 Commemoration of the departed faithful: pray for those the world has forgotten
 Vatican City, 2 November 2014 (VIS) - The Solemnity of All Saints and the
commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, are "intimately linked to each
other, just as joy and tears find a synthesis in Jesus Christ, Who is the
foundation of our faith and our hope", said Pope Francis to the faithful
gathered to pray the Angelus in St. Peter's Square today.
 On the one hand, in fact, the Church, a pilgrim in history, rejoices through
the intercession of the saints and blessed who support her in the mission of
proclaiming the Gospel; on the other, she, like Jesus, shares the tears of
those who suffer the separation from loved ones, and like Him and through Him
echoes thanks to the Father who has delivered us from the dominion of sin and
death.

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