VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXV - # 055
DATE 18-03-2015

Summary:
- General Audience: Children, Gift to Humanity, Remind Us that We Need Help,
Love, and Forgiveness
- Promulgation of Decrees by Congregation for Causes of Saints
- Other Pontifical Acts
- Notice

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 General Audience: Children, Gift to Humanity, Remind Us that We Need Help,
Love, and Forgiveness
Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) ? Having examined the various members of
family life?mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents?the Pope
concluded this first section of catechesis on the family by talking about
children. Today he focused on what a great gift children are for humanity, and
next week he will speak about wounds that damage childhood.
Interrupted by the applause of the faithful gathered in St. Peter?s Square when
he affirmed that ?children are a gift to humanity?, Pope Francis thanked them
and exclaimed: ?but they are also a greatly excluded one because they are even
not allowed to be born?a society can be judged, not only morally but also
sociologically, on how it treats its children, if it is a free society or a
slave society of international interests.?
Then, continuing with hiscatechesis he explained that ?firstly, children remind
us that we all, in the first years of life, are totally dependent on the care
and kindness of others. The Son of God,? he emphasized, ?was not spared this
step. This is the mystery that we contemplate every year at Christmastime. The
manger scene is the icon that communicates this reality in the most simple and
direct way.?
?God,? he continued, ?has no difficulty in being understood by children and
children have no trouble in understanding God. It isn?t by chance that in the
Gospels Jesus speaks beautiful and strong words about the ?little ones?. This
term indicates all persons who depend on the help of others, particularly
children. ?Children, therefore, are a treasure for humanity and also for the
Church because they constantly remind us of the necessary condition for
entering
into the Kingdom of God: that we must not consider ourselves self-sufficient,
but in need of help, of love, andof forgiveness.?
Children also remind us that we are always children even when we become adults
or if we become parents; beneath it all we keep our identity as a child. ?And
this always leads us back to the fact that we are not given life, but that we
have received it,? the Pope reminded. ?The great gift of life is the first gift
we have received. Sometimes we risk forgetting about this, as if we were the
masters of our existence while instead we are radically dependent. In fact, it
is a source of great joy to hear that at every age in life, in every situation,
in every social condition, we are and remain sons and daughters. This is the
main message that children give us with their presence: with just their
presence
they remind us that each and every one of us is a child.?
Listing some of the other gifts that children bring to humanity the Pope
highlighted their way of seeing reality, ?with a confident and pure gaze.
Children have aspontaneous trust in mom and dad and they have a spontaneous
trust in God, in Jesus, and in the Madonna. At the same time, their inner gaze
is pure, not yet tainted by malice, duplicity, and the ?incrustation? of life
that harden one?s heart. We know that even children have original sin, that
they
can be selfish, but they retain a purity and an inner simplicity. Children are
not diplomats: they say what they feel, they say what they see, directly. And
many times they make parents uncomfortable, saying in front of other people: ?I
don?t like this because it?s ugly.? But children say what they see. They aren?t
split persons; they still haven?t learned that science of duplicity that we
adults have unfortunately learned.?
Children also bring with them ability to receive and to give affection.
?Tenderness is having a heart ?of flesh? and not ?of stone?, as the Bible
says,?
Pope Francis noted. ?Tenderness is also poetry. It is?feeling? things and
events, not treating them as mere objects only to use them because they they?re
useful.?
The ability to smile and to cry is another gift that children bring, one which
?we grown-ups often ?block out?? Many times our smile becomes a cardboard one,
something lifeless and cold or even an artificial, clown?s smile. Children
smile
and cry spontaneously. It always comes from the heart, and often our hearts are
closed and we lose this ability to smile and to cry. Children, then, can teach
us how to smile and how to cry again. ? This is why Jesus invites his disciples
to ?become like children? because ?the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these?.?
?Children bring life, joy, hope, even troubles. But life is like that. They
certainly also bring worries and, at times, many problems. But a society with
these worries and problems is a better one than a society that is sad and gray
because it is childless!And when we see a society with a birthrate of just 1%,?
he concluded, ?we can say that that is a sad and gray society because it is
without children.?
On greeting pilgrims from English-speaking countries, the Pope was warmly
hailed
by students from The Catholic University of America and Loyola University
Maryland who are studying in Rome for the semester

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 Promulgation of Decrees by Congregation for Causes of Saints
Vatican City, 18 March 2015 (VIS) ? This morning the Holy Father received in
audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of decrees concerning the
following causes:
- a MIRACLE, attributable to the intercession of the married couple Louis
Martin, layman and father, born 22 August, 1823 in Bordeaux, France, died 29
July 1894 in Arnieres-sur-Iton, France and Marie-Azelie Guérin Martin, laywoman
and mother, born 23 December 1831 in Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, France, died 28
August 1877 in Alencon, France.
HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Francesco Gattola, diocesan priest and founder of the
Daughters
of the Most Holy Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes, born 19 September 1822 in
Naples,
Italy, died there 20 January 1899;
- Servant of God Petar Barbaric,Jesuit novice, born 19 May 1874 in Klobuk,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, died 15 April 1897 Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina;
- Servant of God Mary Aikenhead, founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity of
Ireland, born 19 January 1787 in Cork, Ireland, died 22 July 1858 in Dublin,
Ireland;
- Servant of God Elisa Baldo Foresti, widow, founder of the Holy Home of St.
Joseph in Gavardo, and cofounder of the Humble Servants of the Lord, born 29
October 1862 in Gavardo, Italy, died 5 July in Brescia, Italy;
- Servant of God Vincenta of the Passion of the Lord (nee Jadwiga Jaroszewska),
founder of the Benedictine Samaritan Sisters of the Cross of Christ, born 7
March 1900 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, died 10 November in Warsaw,
Poland).
- Servant of God Juana of the Cross (nee Juana Vazquez Gutierrez) professed
religious of the Franciscan Nuns of the Third Order Regular and Abbess of the
Santa Maria de la Cruz conventin Cubas, born 3 May 1481 in Villa de Azana
(today?s Numancia de la Sagra), Spain, died 3 May 1534 in Cubas de la Sagra,
Spain;
- Servant of God Maria Orsola Bussone, young layperson of the Focolare
Movement,
born 2 October 1954 in Vallo Torinese, Italy, died 10 July 1970 in Ca' Savio,
Italy.

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 Other Pontifical Acts
Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) ? Today the Holy Father:
- appointed Archbishop Esmeraldo Barreto de Farias as auxiliary of the
Archdiocese of Sao Luis do Maranhao (area 13,112, population 1,378,000,
Catholics 992,000, priests 75, religious 307), Brazil. He previously served as
archbishop of Porto Velho, Brazil.
- accepted the resignation of Dom Joseph Roduit, C.R., from the office of
ordinary abbot of the territorial abbey of Saint-Maurice,Switzerland.

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 Notice
Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) - We wish to inform our readers that
tomorrow, Thursday 19 March, on the occasion of the Solemnity of St. Joseph,
the
Vatican Information Service bulletin will not be transmitted. The service will
resume on Friday, 20 March. There will also be a newsletter transmitted this
Saturday, 21 March, on the occasion of Pope Francis?s visit to Naples and
Pompeii.

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