conscience, exploring its various dimensions and content, ranging from the
civil
effects of canonical marriage, the "customary facilities" for the different
rites, respect for feast days and the right of Christians who work in public
offices to be able comply with the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, religious
assistance for the armed forces and prisoners, and the right of parents to
impart a "religious and moral" education to their children. The explicit
acknowledgement of authentic conscientious objection as a practice consistent
with the right of freedom of thought, belief and religion is notable for its
current relevance.
 The signing of the Agreement urges the Parties to look to the future without
forgetting history and those events that, on political and legal levels, have
outlined the condition, social fabric and normative order of Palestine, and
within this, the action of the Church, as may be seen in the following
chapters:
 Chapter 3, recognising the legal personality and right to self-organisation of
the Church, protects its internal order, the freedom to confer ecclesiastical
office, and the exemption of clergy from obligatory personal service such as
military service, etc. Confirmation is given of the competence, as stipulated
by
Palestinian law, of ecclesiastical tribunals to exercise civil jurisdiction.
The
issue, further clarified in chapter 4, also relates to matters such as
marriage,
filiation and adoption, following the personal status of Christians in the Holy
Land.
 Chapter 5, starting from the regime of the "Status Quo", lists the nature and
typology of the Holy Places. The concept of holiness - from which that of
religious rights derives - is posited as the source of the obligation of the
civil authorities to respect for the Holy Places the exclusive authority and
canonical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, except in the case of joint
actions to the contrary. The issue is linked to freedom of worship and the
necessary guarantees for pilgrimages and structures offering hospitality to
pilgrims.
 Chapter 6 guarantees the Church's right to work in educational, social,
charitable and communications sectors, and regulates the relationship with the
Palestinian legal system. This is accompanied by general regulations on the
freedom to receive funds and the discretion appropriate to ecclesiastical
institutions with regard to their function and personnel.
 Chapter 7 is dedicated entirely to Church property and the special fiscal
regime applicable to them, inspired by functional criteria of non-liability,
issues which due to their direct link to the local situation and legislation
will be the object of further negotiations and agreements.
 The participation of the Palestinian Catholic community in the lengthy
negotiations, which began in a systematic fashion in 2010, gave the Agreement
an
added value. The local Church has been shown to be an effective agent,
providing
a valuable contribution not only towards the consolidation of the ecclesial
reality, but also to the image of Palestine and the Holy Land as a whole.

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 Metropolitan archbishops to receive the pallium
 Vatican City, 26 June 2015 (VIS) - Forty-six metropolitan archbishops have
been
nominated by the Holy Father to receive the pallium this year, imposed every 29
June, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, in the Vatican Basilica:
 Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, Germany
 Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Valencia, Spain
 Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 Archbishop Eduardo Eliseo Martin of Rosario, Argentina
 Archbishop Florentino Galang Lavarias of San Fernando, Philippines
 Archbishop Anthony Pappusamy of Madurai, India
 Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos of Athens, Greece
 Archbishop Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda of Osaka, Japan
 Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, Spain
 Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Ireland
 Archbishop Anthony Colin Fisher, O.P., of Sydney, Australia
 Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, U.S.A.
 Archbishop Oscar Omar Aparicio Cespedes of Cochabamba, Bolivia
 Archbishop Jose Antonio Fernandez Hurtado of Durango, Mexico
 Archbishop Stane Zore, O.F.M., of Ljubljana, Slovenia
 Archbishop Djalwana Laurent Lompo of Niamey, Nigeria
 Archbishop Vincenzo Pelvi of Foggia-Bovino, Italy
 Archbishop Richard Daniel Alarcon Urrutia of Cuzco, Peru
 Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaounde, Cameroon
 Archbishop Edmundo Ponciano Valenzuela Mellid, S.D.B., of Asuncion, Paraguay
 Archbishop Beatus Kinyaiya, O.F.M. Cap., of Dodoma, Tanzania
 Archbishop Max Leroy Mesidor of Cap-Haitien, Haiti
 Archbishop Kieran O'Reilley, S.M.A., of Cashel, Ireland
 Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Luanda, Angola
 Archbishop Martin Musonde Kivuva of Mombasa, Kenya
 Archbishop Vicente Jimenez Zamora of Zaragoza, Spain
 Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye of Dakar, Senegal
 Archbishop Jose Antonio Peruzzo of Curitiba, Brazil
 Archbishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam, M.C.C.J., of Asmara, Eritrea
 Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, Germany
 Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang Maye of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
 Archbishop Yustinus Harjosusanto, M.S.F., of Samarinda, Indonesia
 Archbishop Freddy Antonio de Jesus Breton Martinez of Santiago de los
Caballeros, Dominican Republic
 Archbishop Charles Jude Scicluna of Malta, Malta
 Archbishop David Macaire, O.P., of Fort-de-France, Martinique, France
 Archbishop Alojzij Cvikl. S.J., of Maribor, Slovenia
 Archbishop Fulop Kocsis of Hajdudorog for Catholics of Byzantine Rite, Hungary
 Archbishop John Charles Wester of Santa Fe, U.S.A.
 Archbishop Denis Grondin of Rimouski, Canada
 Archbishop Francescantonio Nole, O.F.M. Conv., of Cosenza-Bisignano, Italy
 Archbishop Celso Morga Iruzubieta of Merida-Badajoz, Spain
 Archbishop Gustavo Rodriguez Vega of Yucatan, Mexico
 Archbishop-elect Erio Castellucci of Modena-Nonantola, Italy
 Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin, Germany
 Archbishop Lionginas Virbalas, S.J., of Kaunas, Lithuania
 Archbishop Thomas Ignatius Macwan of Gandhinagar, India.

___________________________________________________________

 Audiences
 Vatican City, 26 June 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
 - Peter Sutherland, president of the "International Catholic Migration
Commission";
 - Georgios Papadopoulos, ambassador of Greece to the Holy See, on his farewell
visit;
 - Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith;
 - Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental
Churches.

___________________________________________________________

 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 26 June 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed:
 - Bishop Francisco Antonio Nieto Sua of San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, as
bishop of Engativa (area 133, population 2,000,000, Catholics 1,533,932,
priests
116, permanent deacons 34, religious 407), Colombia.
 - Msgr. Juan Carlos Cardenas Toro as auxiliary of Cali (area 2,504, population
2,854,000, Catholics 2,425,000, priests 392, permanent deacons 17, religious
899), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Cartago, Colombia in 1968 and was
ordained a priest in 1997. He holds a licentiate in philosophy from the
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and has served in a number of pastoral
roles in the diocese of Cartago, including parish vicar, professor and
spiritual
director of the minor seminary, parish priest, rector of the "Divino Ecce Homo"
Shrine in Ricaurte, formator, bursar and spiritual director of the major
seminary, and diocesan delegate for social communications. He has also served
as
sub director for the national secretariat for social pastoral ministry and
coordinator of the pastoral centre for social evangelisation of the Episcopal
Conference of Colombia. He is currently adjunct secretary of the Episcopal
Conference of Colombia.

___________________________________________________________

 Notice
 Vatican City, 26 June 2015 (VIS) - We inform our readers that no Vatican
Information Service Bulletin will be transmitted on Monday 29 June, Solemnity
of
Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, and a holiday in the Vatican. Service will resume
on Tuesday 30 June.

___________________________________________________________

For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:
www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va

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Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting
the source:  V. I. S. - Vatican Information Service.
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