AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JUN 3, 2004 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received in separate audiences:

- Three prelates from the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference (Region XIII) on their "ad limina" visit:

   - Bishop Arthur Nicholas Tafoya of Pueblo.

   - Bishop Armando Xavier Ochoa of El Paso.

   - Bishop George Hugh Niederaurer of Salt Lake City.

- Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
AL:AP/.../...                                    VIS 20040603 (70)

CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE & FAITH: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY

VATICAN CITY, JUN 3, 2004 (VIS) - This morning Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, inaugurated an interdisciplinary conference on science and faith organized jointly by the same council and the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art.  The theme of the meeting, which will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on June 3-6, is "Ethical Responsibility in the World." It takes place twenty years after another conference organized by the Slovenian Academy of Science in Ljubljana which was then known as the Secretariat for non-believers. 

  The meeting will be divided into four sections: science, faith and society, which analyzes the role that science and faith exercise in social life; science and values, the value of science, which considers the ethical implications of the scientific research especially in the biomedical field; the connection between knowledge and ethics and the interdisciplinary character and the new horizons of activity.

  In his inaugural speech today, Cardinal Poupard described changes in the world, especially in the last twenty years in Europe.  Science has played an important role, said the cardinal, and reclaims the ethical dimension in science.  It is necessary to present an alliance between science and conscience to those who propose that science has no connection to ethical values.
CON-C/SCIENCE/POUPARD                       VIS 20040603 (220)

POPE TO PRESIDE CORPUS CHRISTI CELEBRATIONS ON JUNE 10

VATICAN CITY, JUN 3, 2004 (VIS) - At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 10, solemnity of Corpus Christi, Pope John Paul will preside at Mass in the square in front of St. John Lateran Basilica after which there will be a Eucharistic Procession to St. Mary Major Basilica on Via Merulana, a broad street which links the two basilicas. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, will be the principal celebrant at Mass. Concelebrants will include the vice-gerent, auxiliary bishops and newly ordained priests of the diocese of Rome.
OCL/CORPUS CHRISTI/...        VIS 20040603 (100)

UKRAINAIN GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH: JURIDICAL CONFIGURATION

VATICAN CITY, JUN 3, 2004 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians, with members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

  After assuring him of his affection and prayers, "with my deepest admiration for the vitality of this Church and for the faithfulness which has characterized it throughout the centuries," the Holy Father affirmed: "Rich with heroic witnesses, even in the recent past, your church is involved in pastoral programs that enjoy generous collaboration and approval by the clergy and lay people for the effective work of evangelization, promoted by a climate of freedom that today is felt also in your country."

  "For this reason," he continued, "I share your aspiration, well-founded in the canonical and conciliar discipline, to have full juridical and ecclesiastical configuration.  I share this aspiration in prayer and also in suffering, waiting for the day established by God in which I will be able to confirm the mature fruit of your ecclesial development as successor of the apostle Peter. Meanwhile, as you well know, your request is being seriously studied, also in the light of the evaluations of other Christian Churches."

  John Paul II urged that this hope not be an obstacle "to your apostolic courage or a reason to turn off or dampen the joy of the Holy Spirit which drives and spurs on Cardinal Husar, together with his brother bishops and priests, religious and the lay faithful to greater abandonment to proclaiming the Gospel and in the consolidation of your ecclesial tradition."
AC/GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH/HUSAR                    VIS 20040603 (270)