POPE TAKES A BOAT RIDE ON LAKE SIMCOE

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 2002 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, related yesterday to journalists who are traveling with the Pope on his apostolic trip to Toronto how the pontiff spent his first day of rest on Strawberry Island.
Navarro-Valls said that John Paul II had slept well despite the time difference (when he arrived in Canada it was 1 p.m. while in Rome it was 7 p.m.) and that on Wednesday morning he had gotten up early and had prayed for an hour and a half in the small chapel in the residence where he is staying. Afterward, he celebrated Mass with his personal secretary, Msgr. Stanislaw Dziwisz.

Due to good weather, the Pope decided to take a boat ride on Lake Simcoe. Navarro-Valls said that a group of handicapped children who live in a home on the waterfront saw the Pope pass by and approached him in pedal boats. The Pope greeted each one of them (approximately 20 or 25), blessed them and gave them each a rosary.

Upon returning from the outing which lasted two hours, the Pope decided to have lunch outside in light of the good weather. Later on, he went for a ride in a golf cart and spent time reading.

The Holy Father will leave Strawberry Island this afternoon in order to participate in the welcome ceremony that thousands of young people, participants in the 17th World Youth Day who come from 173 countries, will give him. The event will take place at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Afterward, the Pope will return by helicopter to the island.

On Friday, 14 youths of different nationalities will travel to Strawberry Island to have lunch with John Paul II. Three are from Canada, 1 from Germany, 1 from India, 1 from the United States, 1 from the Sudan, 1 from China (Hong Kong), 1 from Kenya, 1 from Haiti, 1 from Peru, 1 from Australia, 1 from Jordan and 1 from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Arturo M. Bastes, S.V.D., of Romblon, Phillipines, as coadjutor of the diocese of Sorsogon (area 2,141, population 673,386, Catholics 606,048, priests 77, religious 160), Phillipines.

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ARCHBISHOP MARTIN: NO ADVANTAGE IN NOT ELIMINATING WAR REMNANTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 2002 (VIS) - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Office in Geneva, spoke on July 23 in the second meeting of a group of government experts on the "Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects."

"There is a growing awareness among States, that today, questions of conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, peacekeeping and post conflict peace-building and reconstruction must be addressed within a broad understanding of international activity and responsibility." And he recalled that the United Nations Millennium Declaration explicitly referred to this subject and considered "fighting poverty at the center of an integrated and multilateral approach to development and peace."

Afterward, he recalled that, always in this field, "normal social and economic life is hindered by the presence of explosive remnants of war. There is certainly no advantage, military or otherwise, in not rapidly clearing explosive remnants of war, whereas the humanitarian and human risks of non-clearance are indeed great. Explosive remnants of war ravage injury and risk to life among the world's poorest, just at the moment in which they see a more hopeful and profitable future open up for them."

"The Delegation of the Holy See recognizes the complex nature of defining the precise application of international humanitarian law to explosive remnants of war. Experience has shown, however, that in situations where questions of proportionality must be weighed, there is more likelihood of an equitable and consistent application of the fundamental principles of humanitarian law when certain basic, commonly accepted minimum norms can be agreed upon."

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TELEGRAM FOR THE DEATH OF CARDINAL DEGENHARDT

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 2002 (VIS) - John Paul II sent a telegram to the vicar general of the archdiocese of Paderborn, Germany, Msgr. Bruno Kresing, upon hearing the news of the death of Cardinal Johannes Joachim Degenhardt, archbishop of the same archdiocese, today at 76 years old. The cardinal was born in 1926, ordained a priest in 1952, a bishop in 1968 and named a cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of 2001. He had been archbishop of Paderborn since April of 1974.

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