OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 26, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father:
- Appointed Fr. Gaspar Quintana Jorquera, C.M.F., provincial in Chile of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as bishop of Copiapo (area 80,000, population 230,873, Catholics 188,623, priests 28, permanent deacons 25, religious 96), Chile. He succeeds Bishop Fernando Ariztia Ruiz, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with the age limit. The bishop-elect was born in Santiago de Chile in 1936, and ordained to the priesthood in 1964.

- Appointed Fr. Ludovic Minde, O.S.S., assistant to the supreme moderator of the priests of "Opus Spiritus Sancti," a Society of Apostolic Life, as bishop of Kahama (area 19,946, population 952,000, Catholics 92,572, priests 23, women religious 24), Tanzania. He succeeds Bishop Matthew Shija, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with the age limit. The bishop-elect was born in Kibosho, Tanzania, in 1952, and ordained to the priesthood in 1986.

- Appointed Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum, Sudan, as a member of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

- Accepted the resignation of Bishop Antanas Vaicius from the pastoral care of Telsiai, Lithuania, in accordance with the age limit.

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PRESS OFFICE ON NEWS REPORTS REGARDING ARCHBISHOP MILINGO

VATICAN CITY, MAY 26, 2001 (VIS) - The following declaration was made this morning by Holy See Press Office Director, Joaquin Navarro-Valls regarding news reports from New York that Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo would participate in a ceremony presided over by Rev. Moon of the Unification Church:

"So far there has been no direct information on the part of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

"In any case, we hope that the news which is circulating is not true. The same is hoped by all those who up to now have followed him.

"Archbishop Milingo has not for sometime now worked in a diocese or in any office of the Roman Curia."

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FIFTEENTH GENERAL CHAPTER OF DAUGHTERS OF JESUS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 26, 2001 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the participants in the fifteenth General Chapter of the Daughters of Jesus, and said that, through the chapter, "you desire to discern the will of God for your Institute in this moment of history, at the dawn of the new millennium."

After recalling that the foundress of the Institute, Blessed Candida Maria de Jesus, "knew how to travel the journey of sanctity with faithfulness and constancy," John Paul II affirmed: "It is your task to make this spirit bear fruit, with an ever more radical dedication to your vocation and the continual aspiration to be, with the witness of your life, a sign of Christ's presence and the channel of God's call."

"The educational pastoral ministry," the Pope added, "is one of the greatly distinctive characteristics of your charism and of your tradition." The Pope assured the religious that those who "are rooted in Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, will not be content to give children and youth a mere collection of knowledge, but will arouse in them the desire to progress in all aspects of human existence. ... Before such a sublime commitment, the educator cannot remain uninvolved in what is taught."

John Paul II concluded his discourse by emphasizing that "to pass on knowledge and culture with competence, to awaken social responsibility, to impart to the moral conscience the highest ethical values and enlighten the lofty vocation to transcendence of every human being, are undoubtedly essential tasks, especially in a world frequently tempted by banality or by immediate material profit."

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PAPAL LETTER MARKS 1700TH ANNIVERSARY OF BAPTISM OF ARMENIA

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter from Pope John Paul to His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the baptism of the Armenian nation. On May 20, 301 notes the Pope, "St. Gregory the Illuminator baptized the Armenian King Tiridates III, ... and shortly thereafter the whole Armenian nation came to confess the Christian faith and to be baptized."

"The Risen Lord," he starts the Letter, dated May 20, "assured His disciples: 'I am with you always to the close of the age'. How many times in the course of Armenian history have your people put their whole trust in these words! In glorious times, when the Armenian nation could live the Christian faith in freedom and joy, ... (and) in dark periods, when bitter persecution and expatriation tormented the Armenian nation."

The Holy Father remarks that "the Catholicosate of Cilicia represents in a particular way the age-old pilgrimage of Armenian Christianity. When the ancient Armenian kingdom was attacked and eventually destroyed, many of the faithful fled to Cilica, where a new kingdom was established" and where "Armenian Christianity prospered for centuries, until in the late 19th and 20th centuries drastic political and social shifts caused the Armenian faithful to be again dispersed."

"Situated at a kind of crossroads between different peoples and cultures, the Catholicosate of Cilicia established ... cordial and fruitful exchanges with Byzantine, Syriac and Latin Christianity. ... Down the centuries, cordial relations also developed between the Catholicosate of Cilicia and the Catholic Church. Frequent exchanges of letters, and even attempts to restore full communion, were part of this continuing fraternal bond."

Calling the anniversary "a providential opportunity to celebrate and renew the fraternal bond" between us, John Paul II announced: "I am greatly pleased to be able to send you a prestigious relic of St. Gregory the Illuminator as a gesture of affection in the Lord." He added that similar relics were sent to His Holiness Karekin II and His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, and writes: "We are not dividing the relics, we are working and praying that those who receive them will be united."

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CHRIST, THE BRIDGE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, GOD AND MAN

VATICAN CITY, MAY 27, 2001 (VIS) - After his pastoral visit to the Roman parish of St. Angela Merici, Pope John Paul returned to the Vatican where, at noon, he appeared at his study window to recite the Regina Coeli with the faithful gathered below in St. Peter's Square.

In meditations made before praying, the Pope noted that "today, in Italy and other countries, the Ascension of Our Lord is celebrated," though "the traditional day would have been last Thursday, but for pastoral reasons this feast was moved to Sunday."

"Jesus' Ascension," said the Pope, "was an event which left an indelible mark on the memory of the first apostles." He added that, as the apostles were looking heavenward after Jesus had ascended, two angels appeared and told them: "This Jesus ... will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. ... 'On earth as it is in heaven': these words which we repeat every day in the Our Father express well the new conditions of the disciples, who were transformed by the experience of the Paschal mystery of Christ. They are citizens of both earth and heaven."

The Holy Father stated that "Christ, in fact, became the bridge between heaven and earth: He is the mediator between God and man, between the Kingdom of heaven and the history of the world. United to Him in His same Spirit, believers form a new community, the Church, whose nature is at one and the same time both visible and spiritual, a pilgrim Church in the world and participant in heavenly glory."

"Of all creatures," he concluded, "Mary Most Holy was more than any other associated with this mystery. As the new Eve, of whom was born the new Adam, she indicates the path of our earthly commitment."

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COLLABORATE WITH THE RISEN CHRIST IN GROWTH OF GOD'S KINGDOM

VATICAN CITY, MAY 27, 2001 (VIS) - This morning John Paul II celebrated Mass in the Roman parish of St. Angela Merici. In his homily the Holy Father said that the Risen Christ, ascending into heaven "does not definitively leave His disciples; Rather He begins a new type of relationship with them."

"The Liturgy exhorts us today," - solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord - "to contemplate heaven, as did the Apostles at the moment of the Ascension, in order to be credible witnesses of the Risen Christ on earth, collaborating with Him in the growth of God's Kingdom among men. He invites us, moreover, to meditate on the mandate which Jesus, before ascending into Heaven, entrusted to the disciples: to preach conversion and the forgiveness of sins to all the peoples."

The Pope recalled that the parish is experiencing "a profound social transformation and perceives the urgency of adjusting its pastoral action more and more to the changing needs of the people. This is a challenge to which you are already seeking to give concrete answers. You are concerned, in particular, with confronting the many situations of poverty existing in your area. ... I am thinking, for example, of the people who come from countries outside of the European Community, often without work and prevented from living a dignified existence. I think of the many elderly who feel solitude so strongly."

"I am especially pleased," the Pope continued, "with the realization of the Caritas Center, intended as a sign of your response to the immediate needs of the many who too often are forgotten."

The Holy Father concluded his homily emphasizing that "all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ are called to contribute to this action of apostolic commitment and ecclesial renewal."

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in separate audiences:

- Five prelates of the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference, on the occasion of their "ad limina" visit:
- Bishop Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri of San Marcos.
- Bishop Pablo Vizcaino Prado of Suchitepequez-Retalhuleu.
- Bishop Raul Antonio Martinez Paredes of Solola-Chimaltenango.
- Bishop Luis Maria Estrada Paetau, apostolic vicar of Izabal.
- Bishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales, apostolic vicar of El Peten.
- Cardinal Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, archbishop of Antananarivo, Madagascar, and president of the Episcopal Conference of Madagascar.

On Saturday, May 26, he received in separate audiences:

- Six prelates of the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference, on the occasion of their "ad limina" visit:
- Bishop Rodolfo Valenzuela Nunez of Vera Paz-Coban.
- Bishop Rodolfo Quezada Toruno of Zacapa y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas.
- Bishop Jorge Mario Avila del Aguila of Jalapa en Guatemala. - Bishop Julio Amilcar Bethancourt Fioravanti of Santa Rosa de Lima.
- Bishop Julio Edgar Cabrera Ovalle of Quiche.
- Bishop Rodolfo Francisco Bobadilla Mata of Huehuetenango.
- Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

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HOLY SEES EXPRESSES SORROW AT GESTURE OF ARCHBISHOP MILINGO

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration this morning regarding Archbishop Milingo:

"Obviously, the Holy See has learned with great sorrow of the action taken by Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

"By participating in the public marriage rite of the 'Moon' sect, he has di facto placed himself outside of the Catholic Church and has inflicted a serious wound on the communion which bishops above all must show with the Church.

"He cannot therefore be considered a bishop of the Catholic Church and the faithful are invited to draw the due consequences from his behavior and his actions, which constitute the presupposition for the pertinent canonical sanctions, which, in the near future, will be communicated to him and then made public."

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PENTECOST MASS WITH CASKET OF BLESSED JOHN XXIII

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - At 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 3, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Square together with the cardinals.

The celebration, according to a communique from the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, coincides with the solemn transfer of the casket containing the body of Blessed John XXIII, on the 38th anniversary of his death, from the Vatican Grottos to St. Peter's Basilica.

The Blessed's casket will be carried in procession through the Arch of the Bells on the left side of the basilica, and placed next to the altar during the celebration. Afterwards, the entrance procession of the Holy Father and the concelebrants will take place.

At the end of the Mass, after the singing of the "Regina Coeli," the apostolic blessing and the "Ite Missa est," the casket will be transferred in procession through the central door of the basilica and placed before the Altar of the Confession, where it will remain for the entire day for the veneration of the faithful. Following this, the casket will be permanently placed beneath the altar of St. Jerome.

In a briefing for journalists on Thursday, May 31, at 11:30 a.m. in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Virgilio Noe, president of the Fabric of St. Peter, and Sandro Benedetti, head of the Technical Office of the Fabric, will explain the procedure for the final placement of the casket of John XXIII.

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CORRECTION

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - In the May 25 article on the Pope's trip to Ukraine, it was inadvertently reported that there are 5 seminarians in Ukraine. Rather, there are 5 seminaries.

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