PAPAL LETTER TO GERMAN BISHOPS ON CATHOLIC FAMILY CONSULTORS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter by Pope John Paul to the bishops of Germany concerning several matters relative to the Catholic family consultors, centers which provide counselling services and certificates to pregnant women in difficulty. The Letter was written in German and dated June 3, solemnity of Corpus Domini. A translation in Italian was also provided. Following are excerpts:

"In a Letter of January 11, 1998, I presented to you, in my capacity as Supreme Pastor of the Church, several orientations for the future journey in the difficult question of the correct insertion of Catholic consultors into the counselling envisioned by the State according to the August 21, 1995 law on pregnancy and the family. ... I invited you to continue without hesitation ... the consultation and assistance to pregnant women in difficulty. At the same time, for the clarity of our witness to the intangibility of every human life, I invited you not to release, in counselling offices (which are) ecclesiastical or depend on the Church, those certificates which, according to the law, constitute the necessary presupposition for the decriminalization of abortion. Bishop Karl Lehmann, president of your episcopal conference, ... communicated to me ... that it is your firm intention to conform to my insistent invitation."

"For a better harmony between the two aspects of my invitation, you instituted a study group, ... Bishop Lehmann ... communicated to me the results of this work group and informed me about the conclusions of the plenary assembly. I willingly express my recognition for this great commitment. ... I thank you for the many times that you have clearly referred to the importance of unity between yourselves and with the Holy See."

"The proposed solution preferred by the majority of your episcopal conference unites an ample 'plan of counselling and assistance' with a new formulation of the certificate of counselling, for which the work group proposed three variations from which to choose. The plan offers a series of elements, which are clearly aimed at the well-being of the pregnant women and the defense of unborn children. ... The multiple offers of counselling and assistance must make an ever greater number of women in difficulty turn to ecclesiastical or Church consultors, and that the Church be present in an efficacious manner in counselling pregnant women.

"However, serious questions are raised by inserting the 'plan of counselling and assistance' into the counselling for conflicting cases envisioned by the law. The certificate ... documents the orientation to life of ecclesial counselling and constitutes a guarantee for the assignment of assistance promised. What is decisive in evaluating the proposal is the question of whether the concluding part of the text still allows (one) to use the certificate as an access to abortion. If this is the case, this would be in contrast with my above-mentioned Letter."

"Variation 1 of the proposal is closest of all to your and my will for 'another certificate'. Until the juridical and moral quality of this document loses all ambiguity, I ask you to clarify in the text itself that the certificate ... cannot be used for decriminalizing abortion by norm 218a of the penal code. The consequence of this must be that, in the written certificate, ... there be added: 'This certificate can never be used for the decriminalization of abortion'.

"With this necessary addition the Catholic consultors and the Church, at whose command the counselling offices operate, are freed from a situation which is in conflict with their fundamental vision on the question of the defense of life and with the aim of their counselling. The unconditioned commitment for every unborn life, to which the Church has always held, does not allow for any ambiguity or compromise."

"Dear Brothers! I know that all of you for years have defended the life of unborn children. ... I trust that you will continue to present in public and without fear the values which are the basis for the Church's behavior. At the same time, I beg you, for the dignity of life, and the clarity of ecclesial witness, to accept unanimously my decision on the problem, and to translate it into practice by the end of this year."

"I wish on this occasion to thank the many people in your beloved country who ... contribute to giving value to the right to life, anchored in your constitution. ... To the consultors ... and to all who publicly or in a hidden way are at the service of life, I express my sincere thanks."

JPII-LETTER;CONSULTORS;...;GERMANY; LEHMANN;VIS;19990622;Word: 760;

THE CHURCH IN AMERICA MUST SPEAK MORE AND MORE OF JESUS CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 1999 (VIS) - At midday today, the Pope received participants in the symposium on the "Last Hundred Years in the Evangelization of Latin America," which commemorates the first centenary of the plenary council of that continent.

The Holy Father indicated that "ever since the message of Jesus Christ arrived in the New World, the Popes have had a particular apostolic concern for the American continent."

"The decrees of that council, although not directly applicable to modern day circumstances, constitute a 'memory' which must illuminate, stimulate and assist at this crossroads of history." In those decrees, he said, "may be detected a great anxiety to uphold and exalt the Catholic faith, to train ecclesiastics, to protect divine worship and the celebration of the Sacraments, to promote the education of the young and their instruction in the principles of Christian doctrine, to favor the practice of charity and other virtues."

John Paul II confirmed that, since the council, "the vitality of the Church in America has been growing. Proof of this may be found in the Eucharistic and Marian congresses as well as in the four general conferences of the Latin American Episcopate; held in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, Medellin in 1968, Puebla in 1979 and Santo Domingo in 1992, ... all of which culminated in the celebration (in the Vatican in 1997) of the Synod for America."

The Pope recalled that in the Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, 'Ecclesia in America,' he called on pastors to focus on "the fundamentals: Announce Jesus Christ. ... For this reason, the Church in America must speak more and more of Jesus Christ."

"In participating in this symposium as pastors and historians, you have been considering the future from the point of view of the past. In this task you must proceed objectively, on the basis of real knowledge and not on that of ideologies or partial visions of the facts. I am grateful to you for your work in this field so that the Church, in knowing its own history better, may carry out evangelization programs which are adapted to the new reality."

AC;EVANGELIZATION; LATIN AMERICA;...;...;VIS;19990622;Word: 360;

CLARIFICATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 22, 1999 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity today issued a communique stating that, "due to various erroneous interpretations by the communications media following the publication of a Joint Declaration of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification together with an Official Common Statement and an Annex it seemed appropriate to underline the correct meaning of the above-mentioned texts."

"'The ecumenical dialogue carried out since Vatican Council II has led to a significant convergence regarding the doctrine of justification. This (convergence) allows an agreement on fundamental truths regarding the doctrine of justification to be formulated in this Joint Declaration.'

"Consequently 'the teaching of the Lutheran Churches, as presented in this Declaration, does not fall under the condemnations of the Council of Trent'. 'However, this does not remove anything from the seriousness of the doctrinal condemnations associated with the doctrine of justification. Some of these (condemnations) did not simply lack foundation. For us they still hold 'the significance of salutary warnings' to which we must pay heed, both in doctrine and in practice'."

"'This Joint Declaration, just as the dialogues themselves, is based on the conviction that overcoming condemnations and controversial questions is not equivalent to taking separation and condemnations lightly, nor does it mean renouncing the past of each of our Churches. Nonetheless, it (the Declaration) is convinced that new methods of evaluation are emerging in the history of our Churches and developments are taking place which not only permit but demand that the divisive questions and the condemnations be checked and examined from a new perspective.'

"'Together we confess that the sinner is justified through faith in the salvific action of God in Christ. This salvation is given to him by the Holy Spirit in baptism which is the foundation of his whole Christian life.'"

"'Immediately when the Holy Spirit starts in us His work of regeneration and renewal, by means of the Word and the holy Sacraments, it is certain that we can and must collaborate by means of the power of the Holy Spirit.'"

"'If, therefore, we say that we are without sin, we are not in the right. ... In this way, Lutherans and Catholics can together comprehend the Christian as 'simul justus et peccator', despite the different ways they have of approaching the question.'

"As regards the question of 'concupiscence,' understood by the Lutherans as the desire of the human being who seeks himself and which, consequently, they consider a sin; for Catholics this is an inclination that arises from sin and induces to sin but is not itself sin because 'sin is personal in nature and, as such, leads to a separation from God'.

"Consequently, there has been no denial of the past, but rather a common step forward in understanding the mystery of Christ's salvation."

...;DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION;...;CON-UC;VIS;19990622;Word: 480;

JUST SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF THE RIGHT TO WORK

VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was the speech given on June 11 by Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello, apostolic nuncio and head of the Holy See's observer delegation, to the General Conference of the International Labor Organization, which was held in Geneva from June 1 to 17. In his intervention, the archbishop highlighted the need for just and efficacious solutions to the problem of the right to work.

DELSS;LABOR;...;GENEVA; BERTELLO;VIS;19990622;Word: 80;

AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences;

- Eight prelates from the Irish Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:
- Bishop Laurence Forristal of Ossory.
- Bishop Brendan Oliver Comiskey SS.CC., of Ferns.
- Bishop Seamus Hegarty of Derry, accompanied by his auxiliary, Bishop Francis Lagan.
- Bishop Donal Brendan Murray of Limerick.
- Bishop Colm O'Reilly of Ardagh.
- Bishop Patrick Joseph Walsh of Down and Connor, accompanied by his auxiliary, Bishop Anthony J. Farquhar.
- Archbishop Augustine Kasujja, apostolic nuncio in Algeria and Tunisia.

He is scheduled to meet later this evening with Cardinal Josef Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

AL; AP;...;...;... ;VIS;19990622;Word: 110;

COUNCIL FOR MIGRANTS TO BEGIN PLENARY TOMORROW

VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 1999 (VIS) - Members and Consultors of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People will hold their 14th plenary reunion in the Vatican, at Palazzo San Calisto, from June 23 to 25 on the theme "The Shrine, A Privileged Place for the Meeting Between God and His People, Pilgrims in Time."

Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, council president, will address the participants on the dicastery's work over the past six years, and propose several future projects for their consideration. Council secretary, Archbishop Francesco Gioia, will speak on World Day of Migrants and council official, Fr. Michael Blume, will talk on the refugee situation in the world.

Msgr. Antonio Silvestrelli, under-secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, will speak on the jurisdiction and activity of shrines, and several of the members specializing in the work of shrines, will focus on the plenary theme.

An audience with the Holy Father is scheduled during the plenary.

CON-SM;SHRINES;...;HAMAO; GIOIA;VIS;19990622;Word: 170;