SOCIAL SECURITY CONVENTION BETWEEN THE HOLY SEE AND ITALY

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 2000 (VIS) - At midday today, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration:

"Today Friday June 16, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States, and Lamberto Dini, Italian foreign minister, signed a 'Social Security Convention between the Holy See and the Italian Republic' and the associated 'Administrative Agreement.'

"The new international instrument will give Vatican employees, not just the Italians, and their families, greater peace of mind in the face of the demands and unforeseen circumstances of everyday life."

OP;SOCIAL SECURITY CONVENTION;...;TAURAN;VIS;20000616;Word: 100;

HOLY SEE SATISFACTION OVER ACQUITTAL OF BISHOP MISAGO

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 2000 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration:

"The Holy See has learned with great satisfaction the news, made public today, of the acquittal of Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, Rwanda, from all charges in the trial in which he was accused of having planned the genocide perpetrated in the country in 1994. This sentence was reached thanks to an able defense.

"We can only be happy that the truth has been recognized and we hope that, for the thousands of people who are still in Rwandan jails for crimes of genocide, an impartial juridical solution may also be found, avoiding in all cases recourse to the death penalty.
"It is to be hoped that this constructive event may also have a positive effect on Church-State relations in a nation so sadly marked by the immense tragedy of genocide."

OP;ACQUITTAL MISAGO;...;NAVARRO-VALLS;VIS;20000616;Word: 160;

TRUE PATH TO FREEDOM FOUND IN "JOYFUL SELF-EMPTYING"

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul today welcomed the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice, in Rome for their 21st general chapter.

He recalled that their congregation "came to birth at a troubled time in Poland" when "the question of how to regain freedom burned in Polish hearts." Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska, the congregation's foundress, "proposed a radically different answer to the question of how freedom might be found, drawing her inspiration from St. Francis of Assisi and St. Felix of Cantalice. ... (She) learnt that the true way to freedom was not violence, but joyful self-emptying."

"For the great St. Francis," the Pope continued, "the logic of the Incarnation led him to empty himself of attachment to all things, in order to possess all things in God. ... For St. Felix ... it meant walking the streets of Rome as the 'Capuchin donkey', begging food for his brothers, responding always with his famous 'Deo gratias', and feeding the poor from his alms-sack. For blessed Mary Angela, it meant immersing herself in the suffering of the time, embracing 'the little ones' in a life of action intensely rooted in contemplation."

The Holy Father quoted their foundress: "Love means giving, giving everything that love asks for, giving immediately, without regrets, with joy, and wanting even more to be asked of us." And he highlighted her insistence that at the "heart of the congregation's life ... be devotion above all to the Holy Eucharist and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."

"Our is a very different world," the Pope said in conclusion, "but we are no less challenged by the spiritual lethargy of our times and by the question of where true freedom lies. ... For the Felician Sisters, this must mean an ever more radical fidelity to the program of life bequeathed to you by your foundress."

AC;SISTERS ST FELIX;...;...;VIS;20000616;Word: 310;

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Kaolack, Senegal, as metropolitan archbishop of Dakar (area 5,395, population 1,959,342, Catholics 226,404, priests 126, religious 531), Senegal. The archbishop-elect was born in Fadiouth, Senegal, in 1936, ordained a priest in 1964 and consecrated bishop in 1974. He succeeds Cardinal Hyacinthe Thiandoum, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

NER; RE;...;...;SARR; THIANDOUM ;VIS;20000616;Word: 80;

AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz, president of religious affairs in Turkey, accompanied by his entourage.
- Steven A. Loyatum, Kenyan ambassador, on a farewell visit.
- Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva of Leiria-Fatima, Portugal, accompanied by his entourage.
- Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, accompanied by Bishop Walter Kasper, secretary of the same council.

This evening, he is scheduled to receive Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

AP;...;...;...;VIS;20000616;Word: 100;