VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 216
DATE 04-12-2014

Summary:
- Audience with the President of Mozambique: Church's fundamental contribution
to development
- Francis receives the volunteers of the FOCSIV
- St. Peter's Square prepares for Christmas
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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Audience with the President of Mozambique: Church's fundamental contribution
to development

Vatican City, 4 December 2014 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican Apostolic Palace
the Holy Father Francis received in audience the president of the Republic of
Mozambique, Armando Emilio Guebuza, who subsequently met with Cardinal
Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Msgr. Antoine Camilleri,
under secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions the good relations between the Holy See and the
Republic of Mozambique were highlighted. In this context, reference was made
to the fundamental contribution of the Catholic Church to the development of
the country through her educational and healthcare institutions, and her
important role in the promotion of peace and national reconciliation.

Finally, attention turned to various regional challenges, such as disarmament
and the struggle against poverty and social inequality.

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Francis receives the volunteers of the FOCSIV

Vatican City, 4 December 2014 (VIS) - The image of a Church at work in the
service of those in difficulty is promoted by the Federation of Christian
Organisations for International Volunteer Service (FOCSIV), which seeks to
combine the accumulated experience of its members with the dimension of
voluntary service to the poor in the style of the good Samaritan and according
to Gospel values. Starting from their Christian identity, they are "volunteers
in the world", offering many development projects to offer concrete responses
to the "scandals" of hunger and war. Pope Francis emphasised these
characteristics in his address to two thousand members of the federation in
the Vatican's Paul VI Hall this morning.

"Your work alongside men and women in difficulty is a living announcement of
the tenderness of Christ, Who walks alongside humanity in all times", affirmed
the Pope. "There is a great need to bear witness to the value of gratuity: the
poor must not become an opportunity for profit! The face of poverty is
changing nowadays, and there are those among the poor who are developing
different expectations: they aspire to be protagonists, they are organised,
and above all they practise that solidarity that exists between those who
suffer, between those who are left behind. You are called upon to perceive
these signs of the times and to become an instrument of service to assist in
enabling leadership among the poor. Solidarity with the poor means thinking in
terms of community, of the priority of the life of all above the appropriation
of goods by the few. It also means combating the structural causes of poverty:
inequality, unemployment and homelessness, and the denial of social and
working rights. Solidarity is a way of making history with the poor, avoiding
supposedly altruistic works that reduce others to passivity".

Among the main causes of poverty, Francis did not neglect to mention the
existence of an economic system that exploits natural resources. "I think in
particular of deforestation, but also of environmental disasters and the loss
of biodiversity. It is necessary to reaffirm that creation is not property
from which we can derive pleasure and dispose of as we please, and much less
the property of just a few. Creation is a marvellous gift that God has given
us for us to take care of and use for the benefit of all, with respect. I
therefore encourage you to continue in your commitment to ensuring that
creation remains the patrimony of all, to be handed on in all its beauty to
future generations".

Many of the countries where the FOCSIV works are at war, and the Pope
emphasised that working for the development of the people also means
cooperating in building peace, "seeking with tenacious perseverance to disarm
minds, to draw closer to people, to build bridges between cultures and
religions. Faith will help you to do this even in the most difficult
countries, where the spiral of violence no longer seems to leave space for
reason. A sign of peace and hope is your activity in refugee camps, where you
encounter desperate people, faces marked by abuse, children who hunger for
food, freedom and a future. How many people in the world flee from the horrors
of war! How many people are persecuted for their faith, forced to abandon
their homes, their places of worship, their homelands, their loved ones! How
many broken lives! How much suffering, how much destruction! Faced with all of
this, a disciple of Christ cannot step or turn away, but instead seeks to take
care of this suffering humanity with evangelical closeness and acceptance".

The Pope reiterated his concerns for migrants and refugees, who "seek to flee
from hard living conditions and dangers of every type", and insisted on the
need for collaboration between "institutions, NGOs and ecclesial communities,
to promote itineraries of harmonious co-existence between different peoples
and cultures. "Migratory movements require adequate forms of reception that do
not leave migrants at the mercy of the sea and bands of unscrupulous
traffickers. At the same time, there is a need for active collaboration
between States to regulate and effectively manage such phenomena".

Finally, Francis thanked the volunteers of the Federation who, for more than
forty years, have shown themselves to be "true witnesses of charity, workers
of peace, builders of justice and solidarity", and, encouraging them to
continue in their progress, he invited them to find time each day for a
personal encounter with God in prayer. "It will be your strength in moments of
greatest difficulty, disappointment, solitude and incomprehension".

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St. Peter's Square prepares for Christmas

Vatican City, 4 December 2014 (VIS) - The 25 and a half metre-tall white fir
tree that will decorate St. Peter's Square this Christmas arrived in the
Vatican this morning. From Passo dell'Abbate, in the Italian province of
Fabrizia, Calabria, its peculiar characteristic is its double or "twin" trunk:
two trunks joined together as one.

The ceremony of the lighting of the tree will take place on 19 December at
4.30 p.m. and will coincide this year with the illumination and unveiling of
the nativity scene. Entitled "Il Presepe in Opera" ("The Nativity Scene in
Opera") and composed of around 25 life-size terracotta statues, it is a gift
from the "Verona for the Arena" Foundation and will be inspired by the
operatic works for which the city is famed, with the intention of promoting
Italian opera throughout the world. This also provides the basis for the title
of the display, which is a play on the double meaning of the word "opera" in
Italian: it is "at work", in the sense that its message is universal and
active, and also based on the material used to stage the operatic work "The
Elixir of Love" by Gaetano Donizetti.

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Audiences

Vatican City, 4 December 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:

- Cardinal Severino Poletto, archbishop emeritus of Turin;

- Archbishop Michael W. Banach, apostolic nuncio in Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands;

- Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello, apostolic nuncio in Brazil;

- Juan Pablo Cafiero, ambassador of Argentina to the Holy See, on his farewell
visit.

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Other Pontifical Acts

Vatican City, 4 December 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Rev.
Patrick Michael O'Regan as bishop of Sale (area 44,441, population 405,000,
Catholics 120,340, priests 39, permanent deacons 5, religious 34), Australia.
The bishop-elect was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia in 1958 and
was ordained a priest in 1983. He holds a licentiate in liturgy and
sacramental theology from the Institut Catholique, Paris, and has served in a
number of pastoral roles, including deputy parish priest in Lithgow, Cowra and
Orange, vice dean of the Cathedral of Bathurst, parish priest in Wellington
and Layney, diocesan administrator and chancellor of the diocese of Bathurst.
He is currently dean of the Cathedral and vicar general of the same diocese.

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