Summary
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POPE RECEIVES MEMBERS OF JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR
THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE
-
RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEMINARIES MOVED TO CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY
-
PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING NEW EVANGELISATION MADE RESPONSIBLE
FOR CATECHESIS
-
WORLD DAY FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST LEPROSY: INTENSIFYING THE SERVICE OF
CHARITY
-
AUDIENCES
-
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
______________________________________
POPE
RECEIVES MEMBERS OF JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THEOLOGICAL
DIALOGUE
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – Today in the Vatican, the Holy Father
received the members of the Joint International Commission for
Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental
Orthodox Churches. The commission was instituted ten years ago as a
initiative of the ecclesial authorities of the family of the Oriental
Orthodox Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian
Unity.
The
commission has dedicated this week to exploring "more fully the
communion and communication which existed between the Churches in the
first five centuries of Christian history", Benedict XVI said,
expressing his hope that "relations between the Catholic Church
and the Oriental Orthodox Churches will continue to develop in a
fraternal spirit of cooperation, particularly through the growth of a
theological dialogue capable of helping all the Lord’s followers to
grow in communion and to bear witness before the world to the saving
truth of the Gospel."
"Many
of you," he concluded, "come from areas where Christians,
as individuals and communities, face painful trials and difficulties
which are a source of deep concern to us all. Through you, I would
like to assure all the faithful of the Middle East of my spiritual
closeness and my prayer that this land, so important in God’s plan
of salvation, may be led, through constructive dialogue and
cooperation, to a future of justice and lasting peace. All Christians
need to work together in mutual acceptance and trust in serving the
cause of peace and justice in fidelity to the Lord’s will. May the
example and intercession of the countless martyrs and saints, who
throughout the ages have borne courageous witness to Christ in all
our Churches, sustain and strengthen all of us in meeting the
challenges of the present with confidence and hope in the future
which the Lord is opening before us."
RESPONSIBILITY
FOR SEMINARIES MOVED TO CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – 'Ministrorum institutio' is the title
of the Motu Proprio by which the Holy Father modifies the Apostolic
Constitution 'Pastor bonus', (John Paul II, 1988) and transfers the
competency for seminaries from the Congregation for Catholic
Education to the Congregation for the Clergy. Following are ample
extracts from the document.
"The
formation of sacred ministers was one of the main concerns of the
Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, who wrote that,
'fully aware that the desired renewal of the whole Church depends to
a great extent on the ministry of its priests, [the Council]
proclaims the extreme importance of priestly training'. In this
context, canon 232 of the Code of Canon Law claims 'the duty and the
proper and exclusive right' of the formation of those who are
designated for the sacred ministries?that by regulation takes place
in seminaries?as belonging to the Church."
"The
first body of a universal character entrusted with the foundation,
government, and administration of seminaries … was the Congregatio
Seminariorum instituted by Benedict XIII in the constitution
'Creditae Nobis' (1725). Over time that organisation became defunct
and the seminaries continued to receive the Holy See's particular
consideration through the Sacred Congregation of the Council (which
today is the Congregation for the Clergy) or also through the Sacred
Congregation of Bishops and Regulars and, from 1906, only by means of
the latter."
"With
the Apostolic Constitution 'Sapienti consilio' (1908), St. Pius X
reserved jurisdiction over seminaries to the Sacred Consistorial
Congregation. … With the Motu Proprio 'Seminaria clericorum'
(1915), Benedict XV … created a new dicastery that took the name
'Sacra Congregatio de Seminariis et Studiorum Universitatibus'. The
Holy Father explained his decision as due to concern for the
increasing amount of issues and the importance of the office. … The
new dicastery ... was adopted by the Code of Canon Law of 1917."
"It
is significant to note that, during the drafting of the new Code,
there was discussion regarding the possibility of maintaining the
same provision but, in the end, it seemed more appropriate to premise
the entire norm as an introduction to the part that dealt with the
clergy. Thus the rules and directives regarding seminaries were
included … under the apt title of 'The Formation of Clerics'. …
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council again recalled that 'major
seminaries are necessary for priestly formation' … Therefore,
according to the Second Vatican Council and the Code of Canon Law of
1983, seminaries fall under the sphere of the 'formation of clerics'
that, to be true and effective, must seal permanent formation with
seminary formation …"
"As
my venerated predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, affirmed in the
Apostolic Exhortation 'Pastores dabo vobis' (1992) … 'It is
particularly important to be aware of and to respect the intrinsic
link between formation before ordination to the priesthood and
formation after ordination. Should there be a break in continuity, or
worse a complete difference between these two phases of formation,
there would be serious and immediate repercussions on pastoral work
and fraternal communion among priests, especially those in different
age groups'."
"I
find it opportune, therefore, to assign the promotion and governance
of everything regarding the formation, the life, and the ministry of
priests and deacons to the Congregation for the Clergy: from the
pastoral care for vocations and the selection of candidates for Holy
Orders?including their personal, spiritual, doctrinal, and pastoral
formation in seminaries and special centres for permanent deacons?to
their permanent formation?including living conditions and procedures
for exercising their ministry and their welfare and social
assistance."
PONTIFICAL
COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING NEW EVANGELISATION MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR
CATECHESIS
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – With the Motu Proprio “Fides per
doctrinam” that was signed 16 January and published today, the Holy
Father modifies the apostolic constitution "Pastor bonus",
transferring responsibility for catechesis from the Congregation for
the Clergy to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New
Evangelisation. Following are ample extracts from the document.
"Faith,"
the Pope writes, "needs to be supported by doctrine that is
capable of illuminating the minds and hearts of believers. This
particular historical moment in which we are living, marked among
other things by a dramatic crisis of faith, requires an awareness
that is able to respond to the high expectations that arise in the
hearts of believers when facing the new questions that challenge the
world and the Church. Understanding faith, therefore, always requires
that its content be expressed in a new language, one capable of
presenting the living hope of believers to those inquiring into its
purpose."
"On
the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, while
the Church continues to reflect on the richness of the teaching
contained its documents and to find new ways of putting it into
practice, it is possible to see the long path travelled over these
decades in the area of catechesis. It has been a path, however, that
in the years following the Council has not been without mistakes,
even serious ones, both in method and in content. All of this has
brought about profound reflection and led to the development of
post-conciliar documents that represent a new wealth in catechesis."
"The
Council's teachings and the subsequent Magisterium, as interpreters
of the Church's great tradition in this field, have connected the
Catechism ever more closely to the process of evangelisation. The
Catechism, therefore, represents a significant step in the daily life
of the Church, announcing and communicating the Word of God in a
living and effective manner, so that it might reach all and that
believers might be trained and educated in Christ to build His body,
which is the Church."
"In
the Apostolic Letter, formulated as a Motu Proprio, 'Ubicumque et
sempter' of 21 September, 2010, I instituted the Pontifical Council
for Promoting New Evangelisation to pursue 'its own ends both by
encouraging reflection on topics of the new evangelisation, and by
identifying and promoting suitable ways and means to accomplish it'.
In particular, I wanted to assign the task of promoting 'the use of
the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an essential and complete
formulation of the content of the faith for the people of our time'
to the new dicastery."
"Given
all this, I believe it opportune that that dicastery assume as part
of its institutional tasks the one of caring for, on behalf of the
Roman Pontiff, the relevant instrument of evangelisation that the
Catechism, along with catechetical teaching in all its diverse forms,
represents for the Church in order to bring about a more organic and
effective pastoral outreach. This new pontifical council will be able
to provide the local churches and the diocesan bishops an appropriate
service in this area."
"Accepting
the agreement proposed by the heads of the dicasteries concerned,
therefore, I have decided to transfer the competency for catechesis
that the Apostolic Constitution 'Pastor bonus' had entrusted to the
Congregation for the Clergy on 28 June 1988, to the Pontifical
Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, with the same jurisdiction
in the matter as previously exercised by the Congregation as required
by canon law."
WORLD
DAY FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST LEPROSY: INTENSIFYING THE SERVICE OF
CHARITY
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – This Sunday, 27 January, will mark
the 60th World Day for the Fight Against Leprosy. For the occasion,
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for
Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, has published a message
entitled: "A Fitting Occasion for Intensifying the Service of
Charity". In the text of the document the archbishop notes that
Hansen's disease is "a malady that is as old as it is grave when
we consider the suffering, the social exclusion and the poverty that
[it] involves".
"According
to the most recent data of the WHO," the message states, "about
220,000 people?men, women and children?contracted leprosy in 2011 and
many of these new cases were diagnosed when the disease was at an
advanced stage. These data demonstrate the
continuation?notwithstanding the praiseworthy action of international
and national, governmental and non-governmental, institutions, such
as the WHO and the Raoul Follereau Foundation and the Sasakawa
Foundation?of a still insufficient level of access to centres that
offer diagnoses and of a lack of education as regards prevention in
communities that run the risk of contagion, as well as the need for
specifically designed medico-hygienic initiatives. All of this is
fundamental in the case of leprosy, which by now does not lead to
death if it is suitably treated, as it is the case, to a greater
extent, of the other ‘neglected diseases’ ... These are
pathologies that constitute authentic scourges in some parts of the
world but which do not receive sufficient attention from the
international community; amongst these pathologies we find dengue
fever, sleeping sickness, bilharziosis, onchocerciasis,
leishmaniasis, and trachoma."
"In
the face of such a health-care emergency, in the light of the Year of
Faith as well, and with the wish to commit ourselves increasingly
intensely, as Catholics, to carrying out what Jesus requested by his
commandment ‘Euntes docete et curate infirmos’ and by our
baptism, I wish to renew my invitation to work to ensure that this
Sixtieth World Leprosy Day constitutes a new ‘fitting occasion for
intensifying the service of charity in our ecclesial communities, so
that each one of us can be a good Samaritan for others, for those
close to us’."
"An
equally important role should also be played by all those people who
are victims of leprosy, who are called to cooperate in the
establishment of a more inclusive and just society that will allow
the integration of those people who have been cured of leprosy; in
spreading and promoting its forms of diagnosis and treatment; in
stressing the need to receive therapies so as to be cured, thereby
contributing to a weakening of the disease; and in distributing those
medico-hygienic criteria that are indispensable to hindering its
further propagation in the contexts to which they belong."
"As
a Christian, a person who has been afflicted by leprosy also has the
possibility of living his or her condition in a perspective of faith,
‘finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with
infinite love’, praying and offering up his or her suffering for
the good of the Church and humanity. In awareness that what has been
emphasised is certainly not easy, and requires charity towards
themselves and their neighbours, hope, courage, patience and
determination, I would like to observe, employing the words of St.
Paul, that none of us ‘received a spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear’: we have ‘received a spirit of adoption, through which
we cry, "Abba, Father!"’. And, ‘if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer
with him so that we may also be glorified with him’. Even in the
most adverse situations, a Christian is certain that ‘nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’,"
concludes the text.
AUDIENCES
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – This morning, the Holy Father
received in separate audiences:
-
Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the
Evangelisation of Peoples, and
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Mr. Nikolay Sadchikov, ambassador of the Russian Federation, on his
farewell visit.
OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican
City, 25 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:
-
accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of
Kalookan, Philippines presented by Bishop Deogracias S. Iniguez in
accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
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appointed Bishop Buenaventura Malayo Famadico as bishop of San Pablo
(area 1,203, population 2,821,000, Catholics 2,466,000, priests 172,
religious 508), Philippines. Bishop Famadico was born in 1956 in
Banton, Romblon, Philippines, was ordained to the priesthood in 1983,
and received episcopal ordination in 2002. He was previously bishop
of Gumaca, Philippines from 2003. He succeeds Bishop Leo M. Drona,
S.D.B., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of
San Pablo the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401
para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
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