"May this gentle and loving Mother obtain for us the Lord's blessing upon the
entire human family. On this, the World Day of Peace, we especially implore
her intercession that the Lord may grant peace in our day; peace in hearts,
peace in families, peace among the nations. The message for the Day of Peace
this year is 'Slaves no more, but Brothers and Sisters'. All of us are called
to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters, and each, according to
his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of
enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces.
May He guide and sustain us, Who, in order to make us all brothers and
sisters, became our servant".

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 New Year's Eve Vespers: "Give thanks and ask forgiveness"
 Vatican City, 1 January 2014 (VIS) - "The meaning of time, temporality, is
the atmosphere of the Epiphany of God, or rather the manifestation of God and
His concrete love. Indeed, as St. Peter Faber said, time is God's messenger",
affirmed the Holy Father during the celebration of Vespers on the Solemnity of
Mary Most Holy Mother of God, on the last day of the year. He continued,
"Today's liturgy recalls the phrase of the apostle John: 'Children, it is the
last hour', and that of St. Paul, who speaks of the 'fullness of time'.
Therefore, today shows us how time was, so to speak, 'touched' by Christ, the
Son of God and Mary, and received from Him new and surprising meanings: it
became 'salvific time', or rather the definitive time of salvation and grace.
And all this urges us to think of the end of the path of life, of the end of
our journey".
 The Pope also remarked that with the Te Deum, the traditional hymn of
thanksgiving at the year end, and the Eucharistic blessing, we praise the Lord
and at the same time ask for forgiveness. "The attitude of giving thanks
disposes us to humility, to recognising and receiving the Lord's gifts", and
as the apostle Paul explains in the reading, the fundamental reason for giving
thanks to God is the fact that "He has made us all His children, He has
adopted us as His children. This unmerited gift, fills us with gratitude and
wonder. Some might say, 'But are we not already all His children, by the very
fact of being men?'. We certainly are, since God is the Father of every person
who comes into the world. But we must not forget that we were estranged from
Him because of original sin. ... For this reason, God sent His Son to redeem
us at the price of His blood. And if there was a ransom, it is because there
was slavery. We were His children, but we became slaves, following the voice
of the evil one. None other than Jesus redeems us from that effective slavery;
He Who took on our flesh from the Virgin Mary and died on the cross to free us
from the slavery of sin and to restore to us our lost filial status".
 Francis emphasised that the liturgy also reminds us that "in the beginning,
before time, there was the Word ... and the Word was made man", and mentioned
that "the very gift for which we give thanks is also a reason for an
examination of conscience, for reviewing our personal and communal life, for
asking ourselves: how do we live? Do we live as sons or as slaves? Do we live
as persons baptised in Christ, anointed by the Spirit, redeemed and free? Or
do we live according to a worldly, corrupt logic, doing what the devil makes
us believe is in our interest?" He added, "we are afraid of freedom and
paradoxically we more or less unconsciously prefer the slavery that prevents
us from fully and truly living in the present, as it empties it of the past
and closes it to the future, to eternity. Slavery makes us believe that we
cannot dream, fly, hope".
 "Nostalgia for slavery resides in our heart, as it is seemingly more
reassuring than freedom, which is far riskier. How we like to be rapt by so
many fireworks, which appear beautiful but in reality last just a few
instants. This is the reign, the fascination of the moment. For us, as
Christians, the quality of our work, our life, our presence in cities, our
service to the common good, our participation in public and ecclesial
institutions, depends on this examination of conscience".
 The Pope went on to speak about the significance of living in Rome, "which is
a great gift, as it means dwelling in the eternal city; for a Christian, in
particular, it means being part of the Church founded on the witness and
martyrdom of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. Therefore, we also thank the
Lord for this". However, he added, there are also "grave issues of corruption,
which have emerged recently, and which require a serious and conscious
conversion of hearts for a spiritual and moral rebirth, as well as renewed
commitment to constructing a more just and caring city, where the poor, the
weak and the marginalised are the focus of our concerns and our daily actions.
A great and daily attitude of Christian freedom is necessary to have the
courage to proclaim, in our city, that we must defend the poor, and not defend
ourselves from the poor; that we must serve the weak and not make use of them".
 "When in a city the poor and the weak are cared for, assisted and helped to
promote themselves in society, they are shown to be the treasure of the Church
and an asset to society. Instead, when a society ignores the poor, persecutes
them and criminalises them, compelling them to turn to organised crime, that
society is impoverished to the point of misery, loses its freedom and favours
the 'garlic and onions' of slavery, the slavery of its selfishness, the
slavery of cowardliness, and that society ceases to be Christian. Dear
brothers and sisters", he concluded, "to bring the year to an end is to
reaffirm that a 'last hour' exists, and that the 'fullness of time' exists. In
concluding the year, in giving thanks and asking for forgiveness, it will do
us good to ask for the grace to be able to walk in freedom, to be able to
repair the damage done and to be able to defend ourselves from the nostalgia
of slavery, not to idealise slavery". He encouraged those present to pray to
the Virgin Mary, that she might help us receive the Saviour with an open
heart, to truly be and live freely as children of God".

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 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 2 January 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Fr.
Marcelino Antonio Maralit as bishop of Boac (area 959, population 238,850,
Catholics 222,130, priests 30, religious 38), Philippines. The bishop-elect
was born in Manila, Philippines in 1969 and was ordained a priest in 1995. He
holds a licentiate from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain and a
licentiate in church history from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross,
Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar of
the "Immaculate Conception" parish in Batangas; professor at the St. Francis
de Sales major seminary of Lipa City; deputy director and subsequently
director of the diocesan commission for vocations; vice-rector, professor,
dean of studies and subsequently rector of the St. Francis theological
seminary. He is currently parish priest of the "Invencion de la Santa Cruz"
parish in Alitatag, Batangas and member of the presbyteral council of the
archdiocese of Lipa.

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