IN BRIEF

THE HOLY FATHER SENT A MESSAGE TO PARTICIPANTS in the international conference meeting on the theme "Confronting Globalization: Global governance and the politics of development," which has been organized by the "Centesimus Annus-Pro Pontifice" Foundation in Rome. He emphasizes the need for the process of globalization to be "stimulated by ethical values and aimed at the integral development of each human being and the entire human person." The Pope recalls that the challenge continues to be "giving life to integral globalization, identifying the causes of social and economic inequalities, and promoting operative decisions that ensure a future marked by solidarity and hope for all."

MADE PUBLIC TODAY WAS A LETTER BY THE POPE in which he appoints Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, as his special envoy to the celebrations of the 4th centenary of the arrival  in Lithuania of the Brief  "Quae ad sanctorum" by Pope Clement VIII who authorized the celebration of the feast of St. Casimir in Poland and Lithuania. He will be accompanied by Msgrs. Gintaras Grusas and Charles Daniel Balvo, and Fr. Robertas Salasevicius, respectively secretary general of the Lithuanian Episcopal Conference, nunciature counselor and rector of the Major Seminary in St. John of Vilnius.

ON THE OCCASION OF THE 17TH CENTENARY of the death of St. Ambrose, martyr, protector and patron of the city of Ferentino, Italy together with St. Mary Salome, the Pope sent a letter to Bishop Salvatore Boccacio of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino, Italy, who established a jubilee year which will end on August 1. In the Message, dated April 27, the Holy Father urges that the memory and example of this martyr saint "be for everyone an encouragement and stimulus to follow Christ in complete and docile fidelity."

JOHN PAUL II SENT BISHOP MARIANO DE NICOLO of Rimini, Italy a message for the national congress of groups and communities of Renewal in the Holy Spirit which takes place in that city from April 29 to May 2. The theme is "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create."  "I hope," says the Pope, "that Renewal in the Holy Spirit kindles more and more in the Church that interior conversion without which man resists with difficulty the temptations of the flesh and the concupiscence in the world.  Our age greatly needs men and women who, like rays of light, know how to convey the wonder of the Gospel and the beauty of the new life in the Spirit."
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