employ any legal action and financial means necessary for the valid and correct
fulfillment of the task entrusted to it.
 5. For this purpose the Commission shall grant to the Congregations of the
Roman Curia to which the public legal persons concerned belong, the necessary
permission, binding for the concession of canonical authorisations for the
renouncement or reorganisation of assets and/or real estate related to the
healthcare sector. The Commission shall have powers of access to documents and
resources to permit it to carry out its activities. The Commission may assign
tasks to companies, professionals and consultants.
 6. The Commission is entrusted with:
 a. the general study of the sustainability of the healthcare system by public
legal persons of the Church (prerequisites, characteristics, constraints,
working/management methods, current objectives of the healthcare system of
individual legal persons in keeping with their nature, mission and charism) so
as to define a possible long-term operative strategy also in relation to the
principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church;
 b. the proposal for the resolution of crisis situations in accordance with the
results of the more general study, activating all the resources possible in
collaboration with the Heads of the public legal entities concerned;
 c. the study and proposal of new operative models for public legal persons
working in the healthcare sector, capable of implementing the founding charism
in the current context.
 The provisions herein are to be considered stable and valid from the moment of
their publication in 'L'Osservatore Romano'. Vatican City, 12 December 2015".
___________________________________________________________

 Identity and mission of the religious brother in the Church
 Vatican City, 14 December 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press
Office the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the
Societies
of Apostolic Life presented the document "Identity and mission of the religious
brother in the Church" and the concluding activities of the Year of Consecrated
Life. The speakers were Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the dicastery,
and Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, O.F.M., secretary of the same
congregation.
 "The document emphasises the great wealth and relevance of the vocation of
brothers and its content is very valid and innovative in the light of Vatican
Council II", explained Cardinal Braz de Aviz. "The vocation of the religious
brother is, first of all, a Christian vocation ... and the feature of the
person
of Christ that the religious brother specially underlines in his way of life is
that of fraternity. The religious brother reflects the face of Christ the
Brother: simple, good, near to the people, welcoming, generous, and serving".
 The identity and mission of the religious brother, as the text indicates, is
summarised in the concept of fraternity understood as the gift that the
religious brother receives from the Triune God, a communion of persons; a gift
that he shares with his brethren in fraternal life in the community and a gift
he offers the world for the construction of a world of children of God and
brothers.
 The cardinal went on to illustrate the theme of fraternity as a gift that the
religious brother receives from the Triune God. "The religious brother becomes
thus because the Spirit lets him know God, Who in Jesus shows Himself to be a
Father full of love, tenderness and mercy. Together with Jesus, he feels like a
beloved son and with Him he offers himself so as to be in his life entirely for
the Father and entirely for all His sons and daughters in this world. A
characteristic of the identity of the religious brother is the need for
fraternity as a confession of the Trinity: a fraternity open to all, especially
the least, the humble, the oppressed, the unloved" - those who "are less likely
to experience the good news of God's love in their lives".
 This fraternity is the gift that the religious brother shares with his
brethren
in community life. "Fraternal life in the community means harmonious relations
between brethren, mutual knowledge, acceptance and love, dialogue, mutual
respect, mutual support, the sharing of talents, the abnegation of the self,
ecclesial mission, and openness to the needs of the Church and the world,
especially those most in need. All this is beautiful, but it is not obtained
spontaneously.. ... The community is sustained by the gift of fraternity that
religious brothers receive. The brother needs to support for these fraternal
relations by developing the spiritual, mystical and theological dimension".
 Fraternity is, finally, a gift that the religious brother offers to the world
and which is transformed into mission. Therefore, "brothers carry out their
mission of contributing to the construction of the Kingdom of fraternity
through
ceaseless prayer, the witness of fraternal life and community dedication to the
service of the Church and the world. ... The fraternity of religious brothers
is
not self-referential or closed up in itself; it is ... a fraternity in perfect
harmony ... with an outbound Church, that reaches out to the peripheries of
this
world; with a Church called upon to build bridges, open to contemporary man of
every race, culture or creed".
 Fraternal love is made manifest in the Church and in the life of religious
brothers in numerous services: "educating, healing the sick, helping the
imprisoned, welcoming refugees, catechesis, manual work, and so on. Many of
these services represent true ministries. In this way", the prefect concluded,
"the religious brother seeks and points to God in the secular realities of
culture, science, human health, the workplace, and the care of the weak and
disadvantaged. Similarly, he seeks and points to the human being, man and
woman,
whole and entire, body, mind and spirit, inasmuch as whatever affects the human
person is part of God's saving plan".
 Archbishop Rodriguez Carballo expressed his gratitude to Pope emeritus
Benedict
XVI, who in 2008 was the first to encourage the preparation of the document
presented today, and to Pope Francis who read the draft while he was the
cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires and who as Pope has supported its revision,
completion and publication.
 The conference concluded with an announcement of the activities marking the
closure of the Year of Consecrated Life. From 28 January to 2 February 2016 an
international meeting of all types of consecrated life will take place in Rome,
entitled "Consecrated life and communion", which is expected to be attended by
6,000 consecrated men and women from all over the world, and will conclude with
Holy Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in St. Peter's Basilica.

___________________________________________________________

 The Holy Father attends the twelfth meeting of the Council of Cardinals
 Vatican City, 12 December 2015 (VIS) - The director of the Holy See Press
Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., gave a briefing this morning on the
twelfth
meeting of the Council of Cardinals, held from 10 to 12 December.
 "The Council of Cardinals held its twelfth meeting during the days 10-12
December. It began its work on the morning of Thursday 10, after the Mass
concelebrated with the Holy Father at Santa Marta, and finished during the
morning of Saturday 12 December. All the members of the Council and the Holy
Father attended all the meetings.
 During the first meeting, the Council heard Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect
of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and furthered its reflection on
this important Congregation, its activities, its competences and its role also
in the field of ecumenical relations.
 In its reflections, the Council emphasised the importance of the Holy Father's
discourse of 17 October, on the occasion of the Commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops. In this discourse the
Pope extensively developed the theme of 'synodality' but also recalled the
importance of proceeding with a healthy decentralisation. The Council remarked
on the need to further explore the meaning of this discourse and its importance
in the work of reforming the Curia, and agreed to dedicate a specific session
to
this during the next Meeting in February 2016".
 "The Council then resumed its work on the two new dicasteries, mentioned
several times previously", continued Fr. Lombardi. "The dicastery dedicated to
the 'Laity, Family and Life', whose institution was announced by the Pope
during
the Synod (22 October), was the subject of a proposal formulated by the Council
and presented to the Pope, which will now provide the apposite path for
reaching
the final decisions of the Holy Father. Even the dicastery concerned with
"Justice, peace and migrations" was the subject of further consideration, with
a
view to arriving at conclusive proposals to be presented to the Holy Father".
 On Friday, the Council heard two reports regarding reform of the Economy from
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the Council for the Economy, and from
Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, who referred
to
the activity of and results achieved by the two institutions. "Cardinal Marx
also reported on the choice of the external auditor for the consolidated
financial statements - the company PricewaterhouseCooper "PwC", recently made
public. Cardinal Pell spoke about the constitution of a working group to
consider the future of the economy of the Holy City and Vatican City State, on
the progress and overall control of income and spending. The group, composed of
representative from the Secretariat for the Economy, the Secretariat of State,
the Governorate, APSA, Propaganda Fide, the Secretariat for Communication and
the IOR, has already commenced work with a first meeting".
 The Council of Cardinals acknowledged the positive nature and importance of
the
work carried out by the Council for the Economy and the Secretariat, and
encouraged its further progress. "Cardinal Sean O'Malley reported on the work
of
the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and its specific working
groups, for instance on the development of education and formation programmes,
assistance to Episcopal Conferences for the drafting of guidelines at local
level, and so on", concluded Fr. Lombardi.
 On Saturday morning the Council established the calendar for forthcoming
meetings and a provisional agenda for the meeting to take place in February
next
year. The meetings in 2016 will take place on the following dates: 8-9
February,
11-12-13 April, 6-7-8 June, 12-13-14 September and 12-13-14 December.

___________________________________________________________

 Audiences
 Vatican City, 14 December 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
 - Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio in Mexico;
 - Managing Board of the "Asociacion de Magistrados y Funcionarios del
Ministerio publico de la Defensa de la Republica Argentina".

___________________________________________________________

 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 14 December 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed
Archbishop
Vito Rallo as apostolic nuncio in Morocco.

___________________________________________________________

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