VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 198
DATE 11-11-2014

Summary:
- Pontifical Letter to G-20: "Responsibility for the poor and marginalised
must be an essential element of any political decision"
- The Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to "clerical" or
"functionary" priests
- Special College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process for
serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis
Tutela
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Pontifical Letter to G-20: "Responsibility for the poor and marginalised must
be an essential element of any political decision"
 Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has sent a message to
Tony Abbott, prime minister of Australia, who will chair the Summit of Heads
of State and Government of the 20 Countries (G-20) scheduled to take place on
15 and 16 November in Brisbane. The agenda of the meeting will focus on
efforts to relaunch sustained and sustainable growth of the world economy and
the fundamental imperative, which emerged from the preparatory work, of
creating dignified and stable employment for all. Extensive extracts from the
text are published below:
 "I would ask the G20 Heads of State and Government not to forget that many
lives are at stake behind these political and technical discussions, and it
would indeed be regrettable if such discussions were to remain purely on the
level of declarations of principle. Throughout the world, the G20 countries
included, there are far too many women and men suffering from severe
malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high
percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion
which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists. In
addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result
of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the
world economy.
 It is my hope that a substantial and productive consensus can be achieved
regarding the agenda items. I likewise hope that the assessment of the results
of this consensus will not be restricted to global indices but will take into
account as well real improvements in the living conditions of poorer families
and the reduction of all forms of unacceptable inequality. I express these
hopes in light of the post-2015 Development Agenda to be approved by the
current session of the United Nations Assembly, which ought to include the
vital issues of decent work for all and climate change.
 The G20 Summits, which began with the financial crisis of 2008, have taken
place against the terrible backdrop of military conflicts, and this has
resulted in disagreements between the Group's members. It is a reason for
gratitude that those disagreements have not prevented genuine dialogue within
the G20, with regard both to the specific agenda items and to global security
and peace. But more is required. These conflicts leave deep scars and result
in unbearable humanitarian situations around the world. I take this
opportunity to ask the G20 Member States to be examples of generosity and
solidarity in meeting the many needs of the victims of these conflicts, and
especially of refugees.
 The situation in the Middle East has revived debate about the responsibility
of the international community to protect individuals and peoples from extreme
attacks on human rights and a total disregard for humanitarian law. The
international community, and in particular the G20 Member States, should also
give thought to the need to protect citizens of all countries from forms of
aggression that are less evident but equally real and serious. I am referring
specifically to abuses in the financial system such as those transactions that
led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to speculation lacking political
or juridical constraints and the mentality that maximisation of profits is the
final criterion of all economic activity. A mindset in which individuals are
ultimately discarded will never achieve peace or justice. Responsibility for
the poor and the marginalised must therefore be an essential element of any
political decision, whether on the national or the international level".

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 The Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to "clerical" or
"functionary" priests
 Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Angelo
Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, read the message sent by Pope Francis to
the participants in the 67th General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal
Conference, of which Cardinal Bagnasco is president. The meeting, which will
finish next Thursday, is being held at the Domus Pacis of St. Mary of the
Angels in Assisi, and is dedicated to the life and formation of priests.
 In his message, the Holy Father writes that convening in Assisi recalls "the
great love and veneration that St. Francis nurtured for the hierarchical Holy
Mother Church, and in particular for priests ... through whom the maternity of
the Church reaches the entire People of God. How many of them we have known!"
he exclaims. "We have seen them spending their lives amongst the people of our
parishes, educating the young, accompanying families, visiting the sick at
home and in hospital, and taking care of the poor", in the knowledge that the
gravest error is to separate oneself from others.
 "Holy priests are sinners who have been forgiven, and instruments of
forgiveness. Their existence speaks the language of patience and perseverance;
they are not tourists of the spirit, eternally undecided and unsatisfied, as
they know that they are in the hands of He Who never fails in His promises,
and whose Providence ensures that nothing can ever separate them from their
belonging. ... Yes, it is still the time for priests of this substance,
'bridges' enabling the encounter between God and the world".
 "Priests like this cannot be improvised: they are forged through the valuable
formative work of the Seminary, and Ordination consecrates them forever as men
of God and servants of His people". However, "the identity of the presbyter,
precisely as it comes from above, demands he follow a daily itinerary of
reappropriation, starting from that which made of him a minister of Jesus
Christ. ... The formation of which we speak .... is without end, as priests
never cease to be disciples of Jesus and to follow Him. Therefore, formation
as discipleship accompanies the ordained minister throughout his life", writes
the Holy Father. "Initial and continuing formation are two parts of a single
entity: the path of the presbyter disciple, enamoured of his Lord and
constantly following him". "You are aware that there is no need for clerical
priests whose behaviour risks distancing people from the Lord, or functionary
priests who, while they fulfil their role, seek their consolation far from
Him. Only those who keep a steady gaze on what is truly essential may renew
their acceptance of the gift they have received. ... Only those who allow
themselves to conform to the Good Shepherd find unity, peace and strength in
the obedience of service; only those who take their breath in presbyteral
fraternity leave behind the falsehood of a conscience that claims to be the
epicentre of everything, the sole measure of their feelings and actions".
 The Pontiff concluded by expressing his hope that the participants in the
Assembly would experience "days of listening and comparison, leading to the
definition of itineraries of permanent formation, able to link spiritual and
cultural, communicative and pastoral dimensions: these are the pillars of life
formed according to the Gospel, preserved in daily discipline, in prayer, in
the guardianship of the senses, in care for oneself, in humble and prophetic
witness; lives that restore to the Church the trust that she first placed in
them".

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 Special College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process for
serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis
Tutela
 Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - St. John Paul II's Motu Proprio
Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (SST), published on 30 April 2001 and
implemented on 21 May 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, defines the offences reserved
to the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Art.
1-6), in accordance with Art. 52 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.
 The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges these offences by penal
or administrative procedures (cf. Art. 21 paras 1 and 2, No. 1 SST), taking
into account the possibility of submitting the decision directly to the
Supreme Pontiff in the most serious cases (see Art. 21 para. 2, No. 2 SST).
Crimes against faith remain, in the first instance, within the sphere of
competence of the Ordinary or the Hierarch (cf. Art. 2 para. 2 SST).
 Due to the number of appeals and the need to guarantee that they are examined
more rapidly and following detailed reflection, in the Audience granted to
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on 3 November 2014, the Holy Father
Francis decreed the following:
 1. A special college is to be instituted within the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, composed of seven cardinals or bishops, who may either
be members of the Dicastery or external to it;
 2. The President and the members of the aforementioned College are to be
appointed by the Pope;
 3. The College is a provision made by the Ordinary Session of the
Congregation to enable greater efficiency in processing appeals in accordance
with Art. 27 SST, without substantive modification to its competences as
established in the same Art. 27 SST;
 4. Should the offender be of episcopal dignity, his appeal shall be examined
by the Ordinary Session, which will also be able to decide specific cases
according to the Pope's judgement. Other cases to be decided by the College
may also be deferred to the Ordinary Session;
 5. The College shall periodically report its decisions to the Ordinary
Session;
 6. Specific internal regulations shall determine the working methods of the
College.

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 Audiences
 Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in audience
Emma Madigan, new ambassador of Ireland to the Holy See, presenting her
letters of credence.

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 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Rev.
Prosper Balthazar Lyimo as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Arusha (area
67,340, population 2,364,000, Catholics 512,073, priests 128, religious 639),
Tanzania. The bishop-elect was born in Kyou-Kilema, Tanzania in 1964 and was
ordained a priest in 1997. He studied canon law at the Pontifical Urbanian
University, Rome, and subsequently obtained a doctorate in canon law from St.
Paul's University, Ottowa, Canada, and is currently chancellor and judicial
vicar of the archdiocese of Arusha, Tanzania.

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