CARDINAL SEBASTIANI TO TAKE POSSESSION OF DIACONATE

VATICAN CITY, APR 25, 2001 (VIS) - Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, president of the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, will take possession of the diaconate of Sant'Eustachio on Via Sant'Eustachio, 19 in Rome on Sunday, April 29, at 7 p.m.

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MAN'S HUNGER AND THIRST FOR GOD

VATICAN CITY, APR 25, 2001 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II gave a commentary on Psalm 62, " the Psalm of mystical love, which celebrates total adhesion to God" in which "prayer becomes desire, hunger and thirst, because it involves both the soul and body."

The Pope affirmed that: "As dry land is dead, as long as it is not irrigated by rain, and in its cracks seems a thirsty and parched mouth, so the faithful soul longs for God in order to be filled by Him and to be thus able to exist in communion with Him."

Recalling the sacrifices "of communion" offered in the temple of Zion, the psalmist alludes to the hunger for God, satisfied only "when one listens to the Divine Word and encounters the Lord." This brings to mind the banquet of Christ "on the last evening of His earthly life," the Last Supper.

"Through the mystical food of communion with God 'the soul," which evokes all of humanity, "'clings' to Him. ... Also when it is in the dark night, it feels protected by the wings of God."

"In the light of the Paschal mystery," the Holy Father concluded, "Christians understand that their hunger and thirst for God are satisfied through the Risen Christ's gift of the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments, which fulfil the deepest longing of the human spirit for God."

After reading a synthesis of today's catechesis in five languages, the Pope greeted, among others, "the representatives of the Italian National Committee 'Monuments to the Redeemer' and the mayors of the districts in which there are the sixteen mountains upon whose summits, in the Holy Year of 1900, my predecessor Pope Leo XIII wished to raise as many monuments to the Redeemer."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, APR 25, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the ecclesiastical province of Montes Claros, Brazil, with territory taken from the ecclesiastical provinces of Brasilia and Diamantina, elevating the same episcopal see to metropolitan church, and assigning as suffragans the dioceses of Janauba, Januaria, and Paracatu. He appointed Bishop Geraldo Majela de Castro, O.Praem, of Montes Claros, as first metropolitan archbishop of the new ecclesiastical province. The archbishop-elect was born in Montes Claros in 1930, ordained to the priesthood in 1953, and raised to the order of bishop in 1982.

- Accepted the resignation of Bishop Jose Goncalves Heleno from the pastoral care of Governador Valadares, Brazil, in conformity with canon 401, para. 2, of the Code of Canon Law.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, APR 26, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in audience Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, apostolic nuncio in the Central African Republic and Chad.

Yesterday afternoon he received Cardinal Jozef Tomko.

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