AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, MAR 30, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in separate audiences:

- Archbishop Donato Squicciarini, apostolic nuncio in Austria. - Four prelates of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan.
- Bishop Rafael Masahiro Umemura of Yokohama.
- Bishop Dominic Ryoji Miyahara of Oita.
- Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Sendai.
- Bishop Marcellino Taiji Tani of Urawa.

This evening he is scheduled to receive Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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EUROPEAN UNION: GEOGRAPHIC, ECONOMIC, AND SPIRITUAL REALITY

VATICAN CITY, MAR 30, 2001 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the fifty participants of the plenary assembly of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union (COMECE), which is being held in Rome.

John Paul II reminded those present that the Commission "proposes ... to confront, from a pastoral point of view, the increasingly prominent themes relating to the jurisdiction and activity of the European Union and to encourage cooperation among the episcopates concerning questions of shared interest."

The European Union, the Pope affirmed, "must not, however, be solely a geographical reality and continental economic entity, but must above all propose a cultural and spiritual understanding, shaped by a fruitful combination of multiple and meaningful values and traditions."

The Holy Father recalled that two Special Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have been dedicated to the mission of the Church in Europe, in 1991 and in 1999. In particular this last assembly "powerfully confirmed how Christianity can offer a decisive and substantial contribution of renewal and hope to the European continent, offering with a renewed impulse the ever current announcement of Christ, sole Redeemer of man."

After having noted that the Commission and the episcopal conferences of the continent are dedicating themselves to the religious and cultural formation of the faithful, the Holy Father said: "The construction of a new Europe, in fact, needs men and women endowed with human wisdom, and a lively sense of discernment, based upon a solid anthropology which is not detached from the personal experience of divine transcendence."

"Society frequently delegates the determination of its aims to rational calculation, to technology or to the interests of a majority. It is necessary to strongly underline that the dignity of the human person is rooted in the design of the Creator, such that the rights flowing from it are not subject to arbitrary intervention of the majority, but are recognized by all and maintained at the center of every social plan and every political decision."

The Pope concluded his discourse emphasizing that those who govern, public administrations, and those who formulate laws must constantly look after "the human being and his fundamental needs." In this area, "the Church will not fail to offer her specific contribution."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 30, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father erected the diocese of Bafata (area 24,635, population 490,000, Catholics 31,000, priests 16, religious 31), Guinea Bissau, with territory taken from the diocese of Bissau, and immediately subject to the Holy See. He appointed Fr. Carlos Pedro Zilli, of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (P.I.M.E.), currently spiritual director of the P.I.M.E. Philosophical Seminary and regional vice-superior of the same Institute for southern Brazil, as first bishop of the newly erected diocese. The bishop-elect was born in S. Cruz do Rio Pardo, Brazil, in 1954, and ordained to the priesthood in 1985.

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