OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 14, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Egon Kapellari of Gurk, as bishop of Graz-Seckau (area 16,386, population 1,160,554, Catholics 949,562, priests 540, permanent deacons 38, religious 1,027), Austria. He succeeds Bishop Johann Weber, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in conformity with Canon 401, para. 2, of the Code of Canon Law.

NER; RE;...;...;KAPELLARI; WEBER ;VIS;20010314;Word: 60;

POPE GREETS CATHOLIC DOCTORS, YOUTH, THE ILL, NEWLYWEDS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 14, 2001 (VIS) - At the end of his general audience catechesis in Italian, and summaries in five other languages, Pope John Paul had greetings in a number of languages for the more than 7,000 faithful present today in the Paul VI Hall.

After welcoming pilgrims in Hungarian, Croatian, Czech and Slovakian, and speaking to them about the Lenten season, the Pope then greeted the Pistoia regional Association of Italian Catholic Doctors. He encouraged them in their "precious service to life, the basic value in which the wisdom and love of God are mirrored. Respect for life from conception to its natural decline is a decisive criteria for evaluating the civilization of a people." He expressed his "best wishes" to the doctors "for your generous commitment to your noble mission."

The Holy Father told young people that he hoped that the grace of Lent would help them "to rediscover the gift of following Christ and imitating the filial adherence of Jesus to the will of the Father."

He exhorted those who are ill "to sustain through prayer and the offering up of your sufferings the Lenten path that the Church is following."

To newlyweds, the Pope said: "I hope you put the Lord at the center of your families. He walks with you, thus making you always credible witnesses of His love, in every sphere of life."

AG;GREETINGS;...;...;VIS;20010314;Word: 230;

GENERAL AUDIENCE: "MARY, ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH"

VATICAN CITY, MAR 14, 2001 (VIS) - The theme of John Paul II's catechesis for today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, was: "Mary, Eschatological Icon of the Church." As he entered the hall, the Pope passed slowly through the atrium and the center aisle, stopping frequently to greet those present.

In his catechesis the Pope observed that St. John's Book of Revelation tells of a Child's birth, which "represents the coming of the Messiah, and the woman evidently personifies the people of God, both the biblical Israel and the Church. ... Against Mary and the Church rises the dragon representing Satan and evil. ... Mary, her Son, and the Church, represent the seeming weakness and smallness of love, truth, and justice. Against them is unleashed the enormous destructive energy of violence, deceit, and injustice."

"The time of distress, persecution and trial," he continued, "is not, therefore, indefinite: at the end liberation will come and it will be the hour of glory."

John Paul II affirmed that, "contemplating this mystery in a marian perspective, we can state that 'Mary, at the side of her Son, is the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe'."

"We fix, then, our gaze upon Mary," the Pope added, "icon of the pilgrim Church in the desert of history, but stretched out towards the glorious goal of the heavenly Jerusalem."

The Pope concluded the catechesis: "In her glorious Assumption into heaven Mary is the image of the creature called by the risen Christ to attain, at the end of history, the fullness of communion with God in the resurrection for a blessed eternity. For the Church which often feels the weight of history and the siege of evil, the Mother of Christ is the luminous emblem of a humanity redeemed and transformed by the grace that saves."

During a brief ceremony at the end of the audience, the Holy Father received from BMW Italy a gift of a BMW 740i Protection and eight BMW C1 models for his use and that of Vatican City State.

AG;MARY; ICON; CHURCH;...;...;VIS;20010314;Word: 350;