PAPAL LETTER NAMES ENVOY TO ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - Made public today was Pope John Paul's Letter to Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel, naming him as his special envoy to the May 4 celebrations in London of the 150th anniversary of the reconstitution of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. The Letter, written in Latin, is dated March 30, 2000.

Also published were the names of the other members of the pontifical mission: Msgr. Arthur Roche, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, and Msgr- Nicholas Rothon, in charge of the episcopal conference's committee for the Great Jubilee of the year 2000.

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"THE SOCIAL AGENDA - A COLLECTION OF MAGISTERIAL TEXTS"

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - "The Social Agenda - A Collection of Magisterial Texts," a volume edited by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office by council president, Archbishop Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.

Joining him were Bishop Diarmuid Martin and Msgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary and under-secretary of the council, Fr. Robert Sirico, founder and president of the Acton Institute and Kris Mauren, co-founder of the institute.

Archbishop Van Thuan explained that the 200-page plus volume "gathers together the most significant texts of the Church's social Magisterium from Leo XIII to the current pontiff. It is a praiseworthy work done by Fr. Sirico and Fr. Zieba that the pontifical council felt it should sponsor as a useful way to make the social doctrine of the Church known and spread." He emphasized that it is precisely the duty of this council to teach the Church's social doctrine.

The current volume is in English but will be translated into several languages, said the archbishop. The book is divided into articles which encompass Church teaching on the human person, the family, social order, role of the State, the economy, work and wages, poverty and charity, the environment and the international community.

The council president observed that "going through the table of contents one is struck by the variety and precision of the themes traced by the social Magisterium in its more than 100 years of life which have accompanied the extraordinary transformations started by the industrial revolution."

Archbishop Van Thuan added that the volume is "a symphony of themes held together organically by a constant attention to man and his centrality and, at the same time, by the need to affirm in the socio-economic and socio-political systems the inviolable dignity of the human person."

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CARDINAL SODANO IS LEGATE TO CHURCH CENTENARY IN BRAZIL

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state, was Pope John Paul's legate to the celebrations yesterday in Porto Seguro, Brazil, for the fifth centenary of the evangelization of that country. He presided at a concelebrated Mass on the beach of Santa Cruz de Cabralia where, on April 26, 1500, Brother Henrique de Coimbra, chaplain of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral, planted the first cross on Brazilian territory and celebrated the first Mass.

Cardinal Sodano noted in his homily that 16 replicas of that first cross were made and, during the past year, were erected in Brazil's 16 ecclesiastical circumscriptions "to show communion in the same faith" which was brought to this land 500 years ago and has been passed down through the generations.

"We give thanks to God," he said, "for the profound evangelizing work which the Church of Portugal has providentially realized in this land. If we could paraphrase the Holy Father we would say that God is renewing his alliance with Brazil through the work of his valiant missionaries."

As "we praise the Lord by singing the 'Te deum' for the good realized in Brazil during these 500 years of her history," affirmed the secretary of state, "we feel the need to ask pardon for all the human meanness which obscured or sullied the Christian witness of the disciples of Christ. ... As we gather to thank God for the gift of faith, we wish at the same time to ask pardon if we have obscured the beauty of this gift transmitted to our brothers."

Cardinal Sodano told the faithful that Pope John Paul had wished to be present at this centennial celebration but was unable to do so because of Jubilee events in Rome. He expressed the Holy Father's hopes for "a revitalization of the faith and ecclesial unity" for the entire Church on the American continent.

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HOLY FATHER TO CANONIZE BLESSED KOWALSKA APRIL 30

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II will preside at a Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter's Square, starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday, April 30, during which he will canonize Blessed Maria Faustyna Kowalska, virgin, of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy.

According to a communique released today by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, Blessed Kowalska, a Pole, lived from 1905 to 1938. "The new saint, with the witness of her life, invites us to keep our faith and our hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, Who has saved us with the precious blood of His Son, Who rose from the dead and lives in eternity."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Fr. Douglas Young S.V.D., dean of studies at the Divine Word University in Madang and vice-provincial of the Verbites in Papua New Guinea, as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Mount Hagen (area 8,288, population 328,850, Catholics 128,355, priests 35, religious 92), Papua New Guinea. The bishop-elect was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1977.

- Cardinal Bernard F. Law, archbishop of Boston, U.S.A., as his special envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress of Peru which is to be held in Lima, Peru, from August 30 to September 3, 2000.

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JUBILEE OF MIGRANTS AND ITINERANT PEOPLES

VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2000 (VIS) - On May 2 at 11:30 a.m. in the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, and Bishop Francesco Gioia, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, will preside at a press conference for the presentation of the Jubilee for migrants which will take place from June 1 to 3.

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