IN BRIEF

POPE JOHN PAUL "RECEIVED WITH JOY AND RELIEF the news of the release of the three Italian and one Polish hostages" that had been held in Iraq for nearly two months, said Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Holy See Press Office director yesterday afternoon, after hearing the news. "While the Pope shares the joy of their families, he also feels close to the family of Fabrizio Quattrocchi who was assassinated in a barbaric fashion after being kidnapped."

THE HOLY FATHER HAS NAMED CARDINAL ANGELO SODANO, secretary of State, as his personal representative to the funeral in Washington on Friday, June 11, of former United States President Ronald Reagan who died June 5 in California, according to Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

ARCHBISHOP SILVANO TOMASI, HOLY SEE PERMANENT OBSERVER to the United Nations Office in Geneva, on June 2 addressed the 92nd International Labor Conference and the Commission on Migrant Workers. He noted that the Holy See has long paid "specific attention to migrants in the world," adding that "migrations have become a very relevant phenomenon in today's society. ... A constant solicitude of the Holy See has been to emphasize the human dimension in the migration process," because far too often migrants suffer inferior treatment, insecurity of status and forms of intolerance and xenophobia. Migrant workers must be considered a resource, not a problem and, "working across borders with dignity, they can be today's peacemakers."

CARDINAL EUSEBIO OSCAR SCHEID, S.C.I., metropolitan archbishop of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will take possession of the title of Sts. Boniface and Alexis, Pza. San Alessio, 23 in Rome on June 14 at 11 a.m.
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