VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 028
DATE 09-02-2015

Summary:
- Pope's eighth meeting with the Council of Cardinals
- Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: make the
Church a "safe place" for children
- Angelus: the sick are Christ's flesh
- The Pope denounces the shameful scourge of human trafficking
- In the parish of St. Michael Archangel: maintain daily contact with the
Gospel and let Jesus heal our wounds
- To the representatives of EXPO 2015: the root of all ills is inequality
- The Pope: the participation of women in the social and ecclesial spheres is
a challenge that cannot be deferred
- God lives in the city
- Francis to the SECAM: Invest in education in Africa to defend the young from
fundamentalism and abuse of religion

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 Pope's eighth meeting with the Council of Cardinals
 Vatican City, 9 February 2015 (VIS) - The eighth meeting of the Council of
Cardinals began this morning. To be attended by the Holy Father, the meeting
will continue until 11 February. On the following days, Thursday 12 and Friday
13 February, the Consistory of the College of Cardinals is to be held in the
Synod Hall.

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 Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: make the
Church a "safe place" for children
 Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - The members of the Pontifical
Commission for the Protection of Minors gathered in Plenary Assembly from 6 to
8 February in Rome.
 The members who took part in the Assembly are: Cardinal Sean O'Malley, O.F.M.
Cap., U.S.A., president; Msgr. Robert Oliver, U.S.A., secretary; Rev. Luis
Manuel Ali Herrera, Colombia; Catherine Bonnet, France; Marie Collins,
Ireland; Gabriel Dy-Liacco, Philippines; Sheila Hollins, England; Bill
Kilgallon, New Zealand; Sister Kayula Lesa, M.S.C., Zambia; Sister Hermenegild
Makoro, C.P.S., Zimbabwe; Kathleen McCormack, Australia; Claudio Papale,
Italy; Peter Saunders, England; Hanna Suchocka, Poland; Krysten Winter-Green,
U.S.A.; Rev. Humberto Miguel Yanez, S.J., Argentina and Rev. Hans Zollner,
S.J., Germany.
 The Pontifical Council subsequently issued the following communique, the full
text of which is published below:
 "This year's meeting was the first opportunity for all seventeen members of
the recently expanded Commission to come together and share their progress in
the task entrusted them by the Holy Father, namely to advise Pope Francis in
the safeguarding and protection of minors in the Church.
 During the meetings, members presented reports from their Working Groups of
experts, developed over the past year. The Commission then completed their
recommendations regarding the formal structure of the Commission and agreed
upon several proposals to submit to the Holy Father for consideration.
 The Working Groups are an integral part of the Commission's working
structure. Between Plenary Sessions, these groups bring forward research and
projects in areas that are central to the mission of making the Church ‘a safe
home' for children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. These include:
pastoral care for survivors and their families, education, guidelines in best
practice, formation to the priesthood and religious life, ecclesial and civil
norms governing allegations of abuse, and the accountability of people in
positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of
abuse.
 The Commission is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major
importance. In its Assembly,members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to
Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing
processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church - clergy,
religious, and laity - who work with minors.
 Part of ensuring accountability is raising awareness and understanding at all
levels of the Church regarding the seriousness and urgency in implementing
correct safeguarding procedures. To this end, the Commission also agreed to
develop seminars to educate Church leadership in the area of the protection of
minors.
 Following on from the Holy Father's Letter to Presidents of the Episcopal
Conferences and to Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life,dated February 2, the Commission looks forward to
collaborating with churches on a local level in making its expertise available
to ensure best practices in guidelines for the protection of minors.
 The Commission is also preparing materials for a Day of Prayer for all those
who have been harmed by sexual abuse. This will underscore our responsibility
to work for spiritual healing and also help raise awareness among the Catholic
community about the scourge of the abuse of minors.
 Pope Francis writes, in his letter to Church leaders, 'families need to know
that the Church is making every effort to protect their children'. Conscious
of the gravity of our task to advise the Holy Father in this effort, we ask
you to support our work with prayer".

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 Angelus: the sick are Christ's flesh
 Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - World Day of the Sick will be held on
11 February, liturgical memory of the Virgin of Lourdes, and the Pope,
blessing the preparatory initiatives for the day, and in particular the Vigil
to take place in Rome on 10 February, dedicated his meditation prior to this
Sunday's Angelus prayer to the meaning and value of illness, recalling that
Jesus' main activities in his public life were preaching and healing.
 "Through preaching He announces the Kingdom of God and through healing He
shows that it is close, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst", said Pope
Francis to the faithful gathered at midday in St. Peter's Square, commenting
on the Gospel of St. Mark that narrates the healing of Peter's mother-in-law.
After the Sabbath was over and the people could leave and bring Him the sick,
He healed a multitude of people afflicted by every kind of malady: physical,
mental, spiritual.
 "Having come to earth to announce and fulfil the salvation of every person
and of all mankind, Jesus shows a particular predilection for those who are
wounded in body and spirit: the poor, sinners, the possessed, the sick, the
marginalised. He thus reveals Himself has a physician of both body and soul,
the good Samaritan of humanity. Jesus' healing of the sick invites us to
reflect on the meaning and value of sickness".
 The salvific work of Christ "does not come to an end with His person and the
arc of His earthly life; it continues through the Church, sacrament of love
and of the tenderness of God for mankind. Sending his disciples on their
mission, Jesus confers upon them a dual mandate: to announce the Gospel of
salvation and to heal the sick. Faithful to this teaching, the Church has
always considered the care of the sick to be an integral part of her mission".
 The Pope emphasised Jesus' warning from the Gospel of St. Matthew - "The poor
and the suffering you will always have with you" - and affirmed that "the
Church continually finds them on her path, considering the sick as a
privileged way to encounter Christ, to welcome and serve Him. To care for a
sick person, to welcome him and serve him is to serve Christ. The sick are
Christ's flesh".
 In our times, too, despite the many advances in science, "the inner and
physical suffering of people raises serious questions on the meaning of
sickness, pain and on the reasons for death. These are existential questions,
to which the pastoral action of the Church should respond in the light of
faith, keeping before our eyes the Cross, in which there appears the entire
salvific mystery of God the Father, who out of love for mankind did not spare
his only Son. Therefore, each one of us is called to bring the light of the
Gospel and the strength of grace to those who suffer and to those who assist
them - family members, doctors, nurses - so that service to the sick may be
carried out with ever increasing humanity, generous dedication, evangelical
love, and tenderness. The Mother Church, through our hands, caresses us in our
sufferings, heals our wounds, and does so with a mother's tenderness".

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 The Pope denounces the shameful scourge of human trafficking
 Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - Following today's Angelus prayer, Pope
Francis commented that today, 8 February, we celebrate the liturgical memory
of St. Josephine Bakhita, the Sudanese nun who as a child suffered the
dramatic experience of enslavement. The Union of Superior Generals of
religious institutes has established a Day of prayer and reflection against
trafficking in persons, to be held on that date.
 "I encourage those who are committed to helping men, women and children who
are enslaved, exploited and abused as instruments of work or pleasure and
often tortured and mutilated. I hope that those who hold positions of
responsibility in governance will act decisively to eliminate the causes of
this shameful scourge, a scourge unworthy of a civilised society. May each one
of us strive to be a voice for these our brothers and sisters, whose dignity
is humiliated. Let us pray together to Our Lady, for them and for their
families".

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 In the parish of St. Michael Archangel: maintain daily contact with the
Gospel and let Jesus heal our wounds
 Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. today the Holy Father visited
the Roman parish of St. Michael Archangel in the Pietralata quarter, in the
north of the city. Upon arrival, he made an impromptu change to the itinerary,
paying a surprise visit to a settlement near the parish church, known as the
"Rainbow Camp", the home of many displaced persons from Africa, Latin America,
Ukraine and Russia. At the end of his visit, the inhabitants recited the
Lord's Prayer with him in Spanish. He then met with members of the parish
community: the sick, families with children baptised during the past year,
young catechumens, scouts and a number of homeless people cared for by the
Sant'Egidio Community.

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