AUDIENCE: CHRIST FREES US WITH HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - In today's Wednesday general audience, which took place in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father spoke of the Canticle to the victory of the people of Israel who, "in a humanly desperate situation," were freed by God after crossing the Red Sea.

"The Canticle," stated the Pope, "does not speak only of liberation obtained but it also indicates the positive effect, which is none other than entering into God's dwelling place to live in communion with Him." The event of the Red Sea "becomes the 'symbol' of the entire history of salvation ... and prefigures the great liberation that Christ will realize with His death and resurrection."

John Paul II stated that this liberation "will reach its fullness at the end of time" when "the event that the Exodus prefigured and Christ's Easter fulfilled in a definitive way, will be fully realized, open, however to the future."

"As days add on to days, there is no fatality that oppresses us, but rather a plan that unfolds and that our eyes must learn to read (events) as one reads a watermark."

The Pope concluded by recalling that "this hymn of victory does not express man's triumph, but God's triumph. It is not a hymn of war, it is a hymn of love. Allowing our days to be pervaded by this sigh of praise of the ancient Jews, we walk on the paths of the world, not without deceit, risks and suffering, with the certainty of being wrapped in the mysterious glance of God: nothing can resist the power of His love."

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HOLY SEE ON REFUGEES, RETURNEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke yesterday before the Third Committee of the General Assembly on Item 114, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Questions relating to refugees, returnees and displaced persons and humanitarian questions.

"In recent weeks," the archbishop stated, "our attention is so strongly drawn to Afghanistan, although the refugee crisis involving millions of Afghans has been going on for over twenty years. The latest reports from the office of the High Commissioner tell us that more than 3.5 million Afghan refugees have sought refuge in Pakistan and Iran." Quoting Pope John Paul, he noted that the problem of refugees "'is a world emergency which does not allow us to forget that in other parts of the world there continue to be conditions of great and compelling need'."

"What can be done to alleviate or solve the world's refugee problem?" the nuncio asked. "In the short-term, the answer must lie in protecting refugees by providing security, humanitarian assistance, ... and practical relief to those in need of food, water, clothing, shelter, and basic health care."

Archbishop Martino pointed out that "Today the fastest growing group of 'people on the move' are displaced persons who do not cross borders, but are adrift inside their own country. ... But the world has been slow to acknowledge their painful plight."

"It should be abundantly clear," he affirmed, "that the recognition of human dignity and the protection of human rights imply that short-term aid to refugees and internally displaced persons is necessary but not sufficient. The building of more just and peaceful societies, the lack of which is the main cause of population displacements, must become the goal. As on other occasions, the Holy See expresses its commitment to participate in this common task."

"My delegation," concluded Archbishop Martino, "would like to pay tribute to those states that have been courageous enough to welcome refugees and did not remain indifferent in the face of this global problem."

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TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE DAY FOR CLOISTERED SISTERS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience catechesis in Italian, and summaries in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, Pope John Paul greeted the pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall in these and several other languages.

"I offer a warm welcome," he said in English, "to the participants in the Rome study visit organized by the Bossey Ecumenical Institute. May your experience of Christian Rome be a source of enrichment for you and for your work in the service of reconciliation and unity between Christ's followers. I also greet the clergy of the Church of Norway, taking part in a study tour."

The Holy Father then noted that "today, the liturgical memory of the Presentation of Mary Most Holy in the Temple, we are celebrating the Day for Cloistered Sisters. To those sisters called by the Lord to contemplative life, I wish to assure my special closeness and that of the entire ecclesial community. At the same time I renew my invitation to all Christians so that they will give cloistered monasteries the necessary spiritual and material support. We owe so much, in fact, to these persons who have consecrated themselves entirely in unceasing prayer for the Church and the world!"

He concluded by saying he was "profondly saddened by the recent news of the brutal killing of four journalists in Afghanistan. I express heartfelt condolences to their families and to all those who have been struck by this dramatic event. Let us entrust to the Lord's mercy the souls of the deceased and, for them and for all the other victims of violence, let us now pray together the Our Father."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Fr. Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., pastor and superior of the Community of Tacna, as apostolic vicar of Jaen en Peru (area 32,572, population 365,000, Catholics 346,000, priests 34, permanent deacons 1, religious 106), Peru. The bishop-elect was born in Lima in 1944, and ordained to the priesthood in 1971. He succeeds Bishop Jose Maria Izuzquiza Herranz, S.J., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same apostolic vicariate the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with the age limit.

- Gave his assent to the election, canonically carried out by the Synod of Bishops of the Antiochean Church of the Syrians, meeting in Charfet, Lebanon from September 11 to 15, 2001, of Chorbishop Antoine Chahda, apostolic exarch of the Syrians in Venezuela, to the archiepiscopal see of Aleppo of the Syrians. This see was made vacant by the transfer of Archbishop Raboula Antoine Beylouni to Beirut as patriarchal vicar. The archbishop-elect was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1946, and ordained to the priesthood in 1973.
- Erected the diocese of Dundo (area 103,000, population 700,000, Catholics 70,000, priests 7, religious 9), Angola, with territory taken from the diocese of Saurimo, making it a suffragan of the Metropolitan Church of Luanda. He appointed Fr. Joaquim Ferreira Lopes, O.F.M.Cap., counsellor of the Angolan vice-province of the Capuchin Fathers, as the first bishop of Dundo.

- Appointed Fr. Martin S. Jumoad, administrator of the territorial prelature of Isabela (area 1,359, population 301,195, Catholics 80,430, priests 15, religious 44), the Philippines, as bishop of the same prelature. The bishop-elect was born in Kinasang-am, the Philippines in 1956, and ordained to the priesthood in 1983.

- Appointed Fr. Martin Werlen, O.S.B., prefect of the Maria Einsiedeln boarding-school as well as prefect of studies and professor of psychology at the theological school of the Monastery of Maria Einsiedeln, Switzerland, as ordinary abbot of the territorial abbacy of Maria Einsiedeln (area 1, population 85, Catholics 85, priests 45, permanent deacons 1, religious 83). The abbot-elect was born in Brig in 1962, and ordained to the priesthood in 1988.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in audience Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop of Krakow, Poland.

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THEOLOGICAL-PASTORAL CONGRESS ON THE FAMILY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - A theological-pastoral congress will be celebrated in the Vatican from November 22 to 24 on the theme "'Familiaris consortio' in its 20th year: Anthropological and pastoral dimensions."

The congress, organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris Consortio," will be inaugurated by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Speakers will include Bishop Francisco Gil Hellin and Msgr. Francesco Di Felice, respectively council secretary and under-secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of Mexico, Archbishop Carlo Caffara of Ferrara-Comacchio, Italy and Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, Australia.

A communique announcing the congress states that there will be six round tables that will examine more closely the following themes: "'Familiaris consortio' during 20 years, revisited by several couples from around the world"; the statute of the embryo; institutes of the family and life; responsible procreation and natural methods; sex education and demographics today.

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IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2001 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

- Cardinal Paolo Bertoli, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, former camerlengo of Holy Roman Church, on November 8, at the age of 93.
- Archbishop Jose Newton De Almeida Baptista, emeritus of Brasilia, Brazil, former military ordinary for Brazil, on November 11, at the age of 97.
- Archbishop Agostino Baroni, M.C.C.I., emeritus of Khartoum, Sudan, on November 10, at the age of 95.
- Bishop Tarcisio Sebastiao Batista Lopes, O.F.M.Cap., emeritus of Ipameri, Brazil, on November 7, at the age of 63.
- Bishop Tomas Roberto Manning, O.F.M., emeritus of Coroico, Bolivia, on November 9, at the age of 79.
- Bishop Walfrido Teixeira Vieira, emeritus of Sobral, Brazil, on November 9, at the age of 79.

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