AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JUL 5, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father will receive in audience this afternoon Cardinal Josef Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

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MAN, SOUGHT OUT BY GOD AND IN SEARCH OF GOD

VATICAN CITY, JUL 5, 2000 (VIS) - Today's weekly general audience began just before 10 this morning in St. Peter's Square, in the presence of 30,000 pilgrims from throughout the world. The Pope announced that, "having contemplated in previous catecheses the glory of the Trinity, ... today we wish to undertake an interior journey along the mysterious ways in which God comes to meet man, to make him a participant in His life and His glory."

"In His love for man," he observed, "God always goes in search of him, even when man is indifferent or hostile. Man then responds by seeking God: sensing that God loves him, he begins to love in return. And so begins the ceaseless interaction between God's initiative and man's response, which we find in universal religious experience, but especially in the Bible." By way of example, he highlighted the faith in God of "even an enemy of Biblical Israel, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar."

"In the universal religious experience," affirmed the Holy Father, "we find an awareness of the primacy of God Who seeks out man to lead him to the horizon of His light and His mystery. In the beginning there is the Word, ... the 'good will' of God who never abandons man to himself.

"Certainly, this absolute beginning does not erase the need for human action, does not eliminate the commitment for an answer by man, who is asked to allow God to reach him and to open the door of his life to Him, but who also has the possibility of closing himself off to such invitations."

In conclusion, Pope John Paul quoted the "stupendous words placed on Christ's lips in the Book of Revelation: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me'."

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IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, JUL 5, 2000 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

- Archbishop Theophile Jean Dahi, emeritus of Homs of the Syrians, on June 16 at the age of 87.
- Archbishop Alan Basil De Lastic of Delhi, India, on June 20 at the age of 70.
- Bishop Josyf Holovach, auxiliary of Mukacheve, Ukraine, on June 18 at the age of 75.
- Archbishop Anton Tamarut of Rijeka, Croatia on June 28 at the age of 67.
- Bishop Austin Bernard Vaughan, auxiliary of the archdiocese of New York, U.S.A. on June 26 at the age of 72.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 5, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the diocese of Janauba (area 28,975, population 381,585, Catholics 320,000, priests 13, religious 15), Brazil, with territory taken from the dioceses of Montes Claros and Januaria, making it suffragan of the metropolitan church of Diamantina.

- Appointed Fr. Jose Mauro Pereira Bastos, C.P., pastor of Nossa Senhora de Penha in Barbacena, Brazil as first bishop of the diocese of Janauba. The bishop-elect was born in 1955 in the diocese of Cachoeiro de Itapermirim, Brazil. In 1981 he made his solemn vows in the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ and was ordained in 1984.

- Appointed Bishop Fernando Jose Penteado, auxiliary of Sao Paulo, as bishop of Jacarezinho (area 13,426, population 416,674, Catholics 375,826, priests 74, religious 114), Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Conrado Walter, S.A.C., whose resignation to the pastoral care of the diocese of Jacarezinho was accepted by the Holy Father upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Fr. Tommaso Cascianelli, C.P., pastor of the parish of Santa Maria Goretti in the diocese of Itabuna and regional vicar of the Passionist Fathers in Bahia, as bishop of Irece (area 24,065, population 486,000, Catholics 448,000, priests 17, religious 32), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in 1948 in Capodimonte, Italy, made his religious profession in the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ in 1964 and was ordained a priest in 1973.

- Appointed Fr. Dario Campos, O.F.M., provincial minister of the province of Santa Croce in Belo Horizonte, Brazil as coadjutor bishop of Aracuai (area 24,640, population 483,000, Catholics 457,000, priests 30, religious 35), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Castelo, Brazil in 1948, made his perpetual vows in the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1975 and was ordained a priest in 1977.

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