day, February 5, with various celebrations and will conclude with Holy Mass at
14:00 presided by His Excellency Michele Castoro, the Archbishop of
Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo. At 16:00, a procession with the two
urns containing the relics will begin from San Salvatore in Lauro and then
proceed the entire length of Via della Conciliazione in order to arrive at the
parvis of St. Peter's Basilica. There, Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the Archpriest
of St. Peter's Basilica, will receive the relics and after a moment of prayer,
will then accompany the relics into the Basilica where they will be placed in
the central nave before the Altar of the Confession for people to venerate. The
relics will remain in St. Peter's for veneration until the morning of February
11 when, after the Holy Mass of thanksgiving at 7:30 am at the Altar of the
Chair, they will be returned to their original homes. It is opportune to note
that on February 10, Ash Wednesday, the Basilica will remain closed in the
morning for the General Audience and then, in the afternoon, Holy Mass will be
celebrated in the Basilica to mark the beginning of Lent. Thus, those who wish
to venerate the relics are kindly asked to choose to do so on one of the
previous days and to follow along the Jubilee reserved walkway in order to
enter
through t  he security check point as rapidly as possible".
 The second event is the celebration that will take place on Ash Wednesday,
when
the Holy Father will give the mandate to the Missionaries of Mercy. "As
attested
to in the Bull of Indiction, Misericordiae vultus, the Missionaries are to be a
'sign of the Church's maternal solicitude for the People of God, enabling them
to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith.
There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those
sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as
confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the
Father's readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be
missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human
encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming
obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again. They will be led in
their
mission by the words of the Apostle: ‘For God has consigned all men to
disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all'".
 "Thus, the Missionaries of Mercy are a select number of priests who have
received from the Pope the charge to be privileged witnesses in their
respective
Churches of the extraordinariness of this Jubilee event", explained the
archbishop. "It is only the Pope who nominates these Missionaries, not the
Bishops, and it is he who entrusts them with the mandate to announce the beauty
of the mercy of God while being humble and wise confessors who possess a great
capacity to forgive those who approach the confessional. The Missionaries, who
come from every continent, number over 1,000. I am delighted to announce that
there are Missionaries coming from many distant countries and, among these,
some
of which have a uniquely significant importance such as: Burma, Lebanon, China,
South Korea, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Burundi, Vietnam,
Zimbabwe,
Latvia, East Timor, Indonesia, Thailand, and Egypt. There will also be Oriental
Rite priests".
 "We have received a great response for participation but must place a limit on
the large number of requests in order to ensure that the specific sign value,
one which expresses how truly special the initiative is, be maintained", he
remarked. "All of the Missionaries have received the permission of their
respective diocesan Bishops or Religious Superiors and will make themselves
available to those requesting their services throughout the entirety of the
Jubilee but, most especially, during the Lenten Season. There will be seven
hundred Missionaries arriving in Rome. Pope Francis will meet with them on
February 9 in order to express his feelings regarding this initiative which
will
certainly be one of the most touching and significant of the Jubilee of Mercy.
On the following day, only the Missionaries of Mercy will concelebrate with the
Holy Father, during which time they will receive the 'mandate', as well as the
faculty to absolve those sins reserved to the Holy See. An interesting story
may
help to capture the pastoral interest that this initiative has garnered around
the world. Father Richard from Australia will visit 27 communities in his rural
Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle where there is only one church and no priests in
residence. Traveling in a camper, he will journey from community to community
as
a 'Missionary of Mercy on Wheels'! This is but an example of the way in which
the Jubilee is meant to reach all, allowing everyone to touch the closeness and
the tenderness of God".
 Finally, other Jubilee events are planned. The first Jubilee Audience will be
held in St. Peter's Square on Saturday, January 30. "Pope Francis has responded
generously to the many requests he has received from pilgrims who wish to meet
him. Consequently, one Saturday a month has been added to the official calendar
for a special audience, one which will be in addition to the regular Wednesday
Audiences. This first audience already has 20,000 people registered. Another
event of particular interest is the Jubilee for the Curia, the Governorate, and
Institutions connected to the Holy See to be held on 22 February. This
celebration will begin with a reflection given by Fr. Marco Rupnik at 8:30 am
in
the Paul VI Hall. After this meditation, there will be a procession through St.
Peter's Square which will pass through the Holy Door. Holy Mass will then be
celebrated by Pope Francis at 10 am".
 "The Jubilee continues to follow its course and we are certain that, in accord
with the desires of Pope Francis, it will be an important opportunity to live
out in our daily lives the mercy which the Father constantly extends to all of
us", concluded the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New
Evangelisation.

___________________________________________________________

 World Leprosy Day: combating disease and reintegrating survivors in society
 Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president
of
the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, has written a message for the
63rd World Leprosy Day, the theme of which this year is "To live is to help to
live".
 "This Day ... constitutes for everyone an opportunity to continue with the
fight
against this terrible infection, as well as to weaken the ostracism that often
burdens the people who carry its unmistakable signs", writes the prelate. "This
is a marginalisation that can be traced back to a natural sense of self-defence
in relation to a disease which at one time was incurable, and to an almost
‘ancestral' fear which, however, today no longer has any reason to exist given
that leprosy can be defeated and those who have been cured of it can go back to
living".
 "Making its own the commitment of the Church to caring for people with leprosy
and supporting those who have been cured of it, and in order to increase the
sensitivity of men and women of good will, our Pontifical Council for Health
Care Workers, cooperating, respectively, with the Sasakawa Foundation and the
Raoul Follereau Foundation, has organised two study days which will be held on
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June 2016 in the Vatican. At that event, those taking
part will be able to be present at the celebration of the Eucharist presided
over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on Sunday 12 June, on the occasion
of
the Jubilee for the Sick and Disabled".
 "We must feel ourselves committed to finding a new impetus against this
disease, broadening activities involving information and prevention, but above
all fostering, as a gesture of true ‘com-passion', the social and occupational
reintegration of those who have been cured of it and who - despite the fact
that
they carry the marks of this disease on their bodies - have maintained intact
their dignity as persons", concludes Msgr. Zimowski.

___________________________________________________________

 Audiences
 Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in audience:
 - Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony
of the Apostolic See (APSA);
 - Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity;
 - Archbishop Luciano Suriani, apostolic nuncio in Serbia.

___________________________________________________________

 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - The Holy Father:
 - appointed Msgr. Luigi Mansi as bishop of Andria (area 799, population
139,977, Catholics 138,000, priests 89, permanent deacons 7, religious 104),
Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Cerignola, Italy in 1952 and was ordained a
priest in 1975. He holds a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran
University and a doctorate in theological anthropology from the Pugliese
Theological Faculty. He has served in a number of pastoral and academic roles
in
the diocese of Cerignola-Ascoli Satriano, including vice rector of the
episcopal
seminary, rector of the diocesan seminary, head of vocational pastoral
ministry,
director and lecturer in theology at the diocesan Institute of Religious
Sciences and the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Pontifical
Lateran University, master of ceremonies, episcopal chancellor and parish
priest. He is currently episcopal vicar for pastoral ministry, and member of
the
episcopal council, the presbyteral council and the college of consultors. In
1991 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He succeeds Bishop Raffaele
Calabro,
whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the
age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.
 - elevated Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., secretary of the
Pontifical
Council for Interreligious Dialogue, to the dignity of bishop.

___________________________________________________________

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